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Bitcoin reclaims $87,000 as short sellers get wiped out
A massive wave of liquidations and renewed ETF inflows pushed Bitcoin to its highest level since January, but the road to $90,000 is far from clear.
Bitcoin blew past $87,000, reaching its highest price point since late January and catching an entire class of short sellers off guard in the process.
The move represented a roughly 5-6% jump from a prior close around $81,000-$81,200, fueled by a cascade of forced liquidations that turned a modest rally into something significantly more violent.
The short squeeze heard around the market
More than $300 million in short positions were liquidated in a single hour during the surge. Over the full 24-hour window, total liquidations across the crypto market stretched somewhere between $576 million and $800 million.
Bitcoin reached intraday highs near $86,300-$86,344 before continuing to climb through the $87,000 level. The move also pushed BTC back above the average cost basis for US spot Bitcoin ETF holders, previously sitting around $82,225. That’s a meaningful psychological threshold: it means the average ETF buyer is back in profit for the first time since January.
ETF inflows add fuel
The rally didn’t happen in a vacuum. US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $435 million in net inflows on the Friday before the surge, signaling that institutional appetite was already building before prices spiked.
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The timing also coincided with a friendlier macro backdrop. WTI crude oil prices dipped to around $91-$92 per barrel, driven by improving US-Iran diplomatic developments. Equities caught the same tailwind, with the Nasdaq rising approximately 1-2% during the same period.
The $90,000 question
Several market participants have flagged $90,000 as the next major target, a level that would represent another 3-4% climb from current prices. Bitcoin is still well below its January 2026 peak above $97,000, and even further from its all-time high exceeding $126,000, set back in October 2025.
Not everyone is convinced this rally has legs. Some analysts have characterized the move as a classic short squeeze: dramatic, fast, and potentially temporary. Treasury yields have been climbing, and a recent Federal Reserve interest rate hike added another complication, raising the cost of leverage across financial markets.