One of the biggest short squeezes of 2026 happened in a single session.
Bitcoin soared to $78,000 late Friday, triggering $762 million in liquidations among 168,336 traders, including $593 million shorted, according to CoinGlass.
By Saturday evening in Asia, bitcoin had returned to $76,091, up just 0.8% on the day, as Iran announced that the Strait of Hormuz was once again closed to maritime traffic less than 24 hours after its foreign minister declared it completely open.
Two tanker owners told Bloomberg their ships received Iranian radio transmissions closing the waterway, with one supertanker reporting gunfire and halting transit.
The official Nour news agency said Hormuz had returned to “strict management and control by the armed forces” in response to the US blockade of Iranian shipping. Several tankers who rushed to the strait on Friday when the reopening was announced turned back.
Friday’s rally resulted in a $590 million shorts rout, with bitcoin bets accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the largest share, followed by ether shorts at $167. Short positions outnumbered long positions by a ratio of nearly four to one, representing the sharpest break between short and heavy positions in a liquidation event since February.
The setup had been under construction for weeks. Funding rates for Bitcoin perpetuals were negative, meaning shorts were paying a premium to longs to hold their positions.
The reopening of Hormuz on Friday was the catalyst that turned the situation around. Crude oil fell nearly 10% to $85.90 a barrel in early trading, and bitcoin surpassed the $76,000-$78,000 zone that has capped every rally attempt since the Feb. 5 crash.
President Donald Trump later told reporters Friday evening that Iran had agreed to an “unlimited” suspension of its nuclear program, although Tehran has never confirmed the claim.
None of this survived intact until Saturday.
The market pattern is now familiar, where ceasefire headlines lead to a rally, but a trend reversal arrives before the breakout can consolidate. Forced unwinding gets another setup to work against.
Ether held up better than bitcoin on the pullback, down just 0.2% over 24 hours, while solana fell 1.3% and dogecoin fell 2.1%. On a weekly basis, ether is still up 5.2%, XRP is leading at 6.4%, BNB added 4.6%, and bitcoin sits at 4.5%.
The question now is whether the $76,000 zone will hold until Monday’s open. A sharp weekly close above $76,000 would preserve the structural break even if the peace trade continues to collapse.
A loss of level and bitcoin returns to the same range it has been trapped in since March, but this time with the just erased short base looking to rebuild.
