Investors liquidated some $37 million of BTC short positions over the past 24 hours, pushing the price higher Wednesday, data shows. Ether also climbed.Read MoreCoinDesk: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News and Price Data
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Bitcoin bolted past $24,000 for the first time in two weeks after surging more than 8% over the past 24 hours, likely the result of the type of short squeeze that historically has sent prices higher. The percentage increase was the largest since BTC jumped 10.5% on Sept. 2.
The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had dropped below $21,600 at different points in recent days amid growing investor fretfulness about crypto regulation, particularly targeting the stablecoin market, and about future U.S. central bank steps to tame inflation.
But those concerns seemed to fade quickly as the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization surged past $24,100 by the afternoon before retreating slightly.
Data from crypto data provider Coinglass showed that traders who bet on price shifts liquidated some $40 million of bitcoin over the past 24 hours, from which about $37 million were in short positions.
Crypto-related stocks also jumped with both exchange Coinbase (COIN) and bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) increasing 15%. Business software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), a major BTC holder, recently rose more than 9%.
Ether (ETH) was up 5.5% to recently trade at $1,645. The CoinDesk Market Index spiked 4% for the day.
UPDATE (Feb. 15, 2023, 20:41 UTC): Updates headline and adds historical context to the size of bitcoin’s 24-hour increase.
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