Nearly $100 million in bitcoin short positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours on centralized crypto exchanges, according to Coinglass data.

The bitcoin market experienced increased volatility over the past day, with the price fluctuating around the $44,000 mark. This price action caused the wipeout of approximately $122 million in bitcoin positions, with $96 million being shorts.

According to The Block’s Data Dashboard, over $260 million has so far been liquidated in short BTC +1.26% liquidations in the initial five days of December.

Bitfinex analysts say while bitcoin remains volatile, they remain bullish for 2024. The analysts highlighted two factors that could be fueling the recent rally: the upcoming bitcoin halving in April 2024 and the potential approval of a spot bitcoin ETF.

"While some market participants are eyeing $100,000 and some hoping for higher, we believe the bitcoin price will reach between $60,000 and $75,000 by the end of next year. This should be an easily attainable range considering the bottom of the trading range this year was formed around $16,000," Bitfinex analysts said in a note shared with The Block.

Combined cryptocurrency market short liquidations

December has seen a significant increase in the amount of short liquidations across the entire cryptocurrency market. Since the beginning of the month, exchanges have registered $614 million in short liquidations.

Trading volume has also witnessed an uptick in the past month, according to The Block's Data Dashboard. In November the trading volume of bitcoin futures came in at $888 billion. Bitcoin futures trading volume has demonstrated a robust start to December, currently standing at $213 billion, just six days into the month.

Bitcoin has appreciated by almost 175% since the beginning of the year. The world's largest digital asset was up as much as 5% on Wednesday, trading for $43,659 at 7:30 a.m. ET.