Bitcoin rebounds to $63,800, $540M in shorts liquidated

Bitcoin climbed about 7.5% from a Friday low of $59,353 to a Monday high near $63,800, triggering roughly $540 million in short-position liquidations in a single day. Total crypto liquidations over a 24-hour span exceeded $588 million, of which around $444 million were shorts.

Aggregated open interest across the market fell from about 285,000 BTC on Friday to roughly 255,000 BTC after the rebound, indicating many leveraged short positions were closed as prices rose. The aggregated spot and perpetual cumulative volume delta increased since Friday’s low, showing stronger net buying across spot and derivatives markets. The Coinbase premium improved from about -0.048 to -0.035 but remained negative, signaling U.S. buying pressure had not fully returned.

Macro developments weighed on markets last week. The S&P 500 fell about 2.9% on Friday and remained below its all-time high. South Korea’s KOSPI plunged more than 8% on Monday and triggered a market circuit breaker. Paul Howard, senior director at Wincent, linked large outflows to institutional responses to macroeconomic headlines and pointed to the KOSPI drop as evidence of broader pressure on risk assets amid developments in the Middle East.

Several market metrics pointed to caution. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index registered about 8, its lowest reading since late February 2026. Users of a prediction market placed roughly a 73% probability on Bitcoin falling to $55,000 rather than rising to $85,000 as the next major move. Spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded about $1.72 billion in outflows last week, following earlier withdrawals of roughly $4.4 billion across 13 sessions. CME‑implied Bitcoin volatility traded near 50, a level only reached sporadically over the past year. Bitcoin also traded below its 200-day simple moving average after last week’s selloff.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the Senate Finance Committee the Treasury is proceeding with “deliberate speed” to implement the administration’s order to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve, stressing a methodical approach to the effort.

Market participants said the short squeeze forced many leveraged bets to close and produced a rapid intraday bounce. They also noted that multiple structural and macro indicators have not yet aligned to confirm a sustained trend reversal.