Bitcoin price surge above $56,000 causes spike in short liquidations

Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin surged to a multi-year high of over $56,000, as spot bitcoin ETF trading volume increased.

The largest digital asset by market cap has increased by over 10% in the past 24 hours, changing hands for $56,566 at 5:46 a.m. ET. 

The spike in prices over the past day led to a substantial liquidation of short positions on centralized exchanges. The volatility resulted in the liquidations of more than $188 million in bitcoin positions, with the majority ($164.89 million) being shorts, according to CoinGlass data.

Major altcoins such as SOL, the native coin of the Solana network, and ether also posted daily gains of 9% and 6% respectively, according to The Block's Prices Page.

The price of bitcoin increased over 10% in the past 24 hours. Image: The Block

The overall crypto market saw over $280 million of liquidated short positions in the last 24 hours, contributing to a total of $363.71 million in liquidations across various centralized exchanges, data shows.

Liquidations take place when a trader's position is forcibly closed due to insufficient funds to cover losses. This situation arises when market movements are unfavorable to the trader's position, resulting in the depletion of their initial margin or collateral.

According to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, trading volume for spot bitcoin ETFs reached a new all-time high on Monday, surpassing $2.4 billion within a 24-hour period. "This was double their recent daily average," Balchunas posted on X.com

Peter Brandt forecasts $200,000 price by 2025 

Meanwhile, Factor LLC CEO Peter Brandt has claimed that bitcoin could rally as high as $200,000 by September 2025 in his forecast. Brandt’s prediction is a significant upward revision from his former estimate of $120,000.

According to the technical analyst, the revised 2025 target price comes on the back of Bitcoin breaking out of a “15-month channel” on Monday. However, he added that this new forecast could be nullified if the digital asset falls below last week’s low of around $50,500.

"With the thrust above the upper boundary of the 15-month channel, the target for the current bull market cycle scheduled to end in Aug/Sep 2025 is being raised from $120,000 to $200,000. A close below last week's low will nullify this interpretation," Brandt said. The technical analyst posted his forecast on X.com alongside a chart to illustrate his bullish prediction.