The bears were wrong again.
Bitcoin briefly marked $80,594 early Monday, its highest level since January 31, before retreating to trade around $79,851 at the time of writing. The move triggered $370 million in total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours, affecting 97,235 traders, according to CoinGlass data. Of this total, $301.93 million came from short positions.
Shorts liquidated about four times more than longs, indicating that bearish positioning was dominant at the start of the move. They were caught offside as the rally forced them to liquidate their positions at a loss.
Bitcoin alone accounted for $179 million of that wipeout, with ether traders contributing $95 million. The largest liquidation was an $11.77 million ETH/USDT short sale on Binance.
This operation is the second of its kind in two weeks. A similar pattern on April 18 wiped out $593 million in shorts as bitcoin surged above $77,000 following reports of a ceasefire in Iran.
The pattern is starting to look structural.
Funding rates for Bitcoin perpetuals have been held negative for most of April, meaning shorts have been paying long positions to stay short, and every time the price rises, the same trade unravels violently.
Other majors accepted the offer. Ether climbed 2.3% to $2,368 and is up 2.2% for the week. XRP gained 2.1% to $1.42. BNB added 1.9% to $630. Solana rose 1.4% to $85.14. Dogecoin remains the top performer, up 3.5% on the day and 14.3% on the week to $0.1119, extending the breakout that began last week alongside the highest open interest of the year for DOGE futures.
Net inflows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs reached $153.9 million last week, according to SoSoValue. April generated $1.97 billion across products, the highest monthly total since October 2025. Ether ETFs saw the opposite trend, with $82.5 million in net outflows ending a three-week streak of inflows.
FxPro analysts said in a note that bitcoin needs to consolidate above $85,000 to confirm the breakout.
“The rising price and falling 200-day moving average are actively converging with an important long-term trendline at $83,600. Consolidation above this level could further encourage traders, but we would prefer to see consolidation above $85,000 first.
Positioning of derivative products
- Privacy-focused Zcash (ZEC), market-leading Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin smart contract platform are the biggest gainers in open interest (OI) over the past 24 hours, indicating a broad resumption of derivatives activity.
- Bitcoin futures OI climbed to 763.35K BTC, up sharply from the May 1 low of 707.24K BTC. This increase suggests a renewed inflow of capital into the market after the reduction of risks at the end of April. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s 24-hour cumulative volume delta (CVD) has turned positive, meaning buyers are driving trading activity by placing more market orders than sellers, rather than using passive limit orders.
- ZEC shows a similar pattern. Open interest sits near a four-month high at 2.26 million tokens, accompanied by one of the strongest CVD figures among major tokens. Funding rates are also positive, around 7%, indicating a bias towards long positioning.
- Ethereum futures OI reached 14.17 million ETH, the highest level since April 18. Like Bitcoin, it is supported by positive funding rates and a positive 24-hour CVD, suggesting sustained demand for leveraged long positions.
- Not all markets seem equally balanced. Privacy coin Monero (XMR) and appear overheated, with signs of overcrowded bullish positioning. Funding rates in these markets have climbed above 60%, increasing the risk of long squeezes if momentum falters.
- Options markets, however, signal relative calm. Thirty-day annualized implied volatility for bitcoin and ether has remained subdued for over a month, consistent with a consistent, higher rally. The Ethereum Volatility Index (EVIV) is now approaching the 55% level, an area that has served as a floor several times since 2024, making it a key level to monitor for a possible volatility recovery.
- On Deribit, biases in bitcoin and ether have weakened significantly compared to a month ago. This change suggests reduced demand for downside protection and an increased appetite for upside exposure via call options as prices continue to rise.
Symbolic discussion
- One of the biggest winners in the CLARITY Act yield compromise appears to be real-world asset tokens. The compromise would see companies restructure their reward programs from a “buy and hold” model to a “buy and use” model.
- This, combined with increasing regulatory clarity around real-world token assets, has helped drive a rise in RWA tokens, with Ondo Finance’s ONDO leading the gains.
- It rose 11% in the past 24 hours, surpassing its reported 90-day trading range, as investors turned their attention to real-world token assets. Tokens including and PENDLE are also on the rise.
- Ondo’s total value locked stands at $3.57 billion, with a market value of $1.5 billion according to DeFiLlama data. The rally is also driven by growing interest in tokenizing real-world assets, with over $30.9 billion tokenized according to data from RWA.xyz.
- This decision comes after several recent developments in the project. Ondo Finance tapped Broadridge Financial Solutions to add proxy voting and deposit access to more than 250 tokenized stocks and ETFs this week.
