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Shorts get mauled as Bitcoin surges to $24,285

Jordan Finneseth

Kitco News

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(Kitco News) Crypto prices surged higher on Wednesday afternoon as Bitcoin climbed to a two-week high in what some are calling a short squeeze that resulted in the liquidation of more than $60.78 million worth of short positions, data from Coinglass shows.

The traditional markets, likewise, saw prices climbing higher in the afternoon session as the latest economic data showed strong consumer spending and an increase in inflation across January, which caused some to reevaluate the outlook for continued interest rate hikes. After climbing out of negative territory, the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all closed the day in the green, up 0.28%, 0.11%, and 0.92%, respectively.

Data provided by TradingView shows that after briefly pulling back in the early trading hours on Wednesday, Bitcoin (BTC) price spiked higher in the afternoon as bulls took charge of the price action and pushed the top crypto to a daily high of $24,285, its highest price since Feb. 1.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

With the move higher in Bitcoin, “Bulls have negated a fledgling price downtrend on the daily bar chart and have now stabilized prices,” according to Kitco senior technical analyst Jim Wyckoff, who added that “The bulls and bears are back on a level overall near-term technical playing field.”

A survey of Crypto Twitter shows that there is no agreed-upon consensus as to why the crypto market is moving on Wednesday afternoon, but overall, the community is excited about the prospect of continued gains following the “largest single day advance since the November lows.”

And matters should continue to improve so long as Bitcoin’s price manages to stay above the 200-day moving average cloud, according to market analyst Caleb Franzen.

A sea of green in the altcoin market

Altcoins also saw a flurry of activity that propelled their prices higher, with all but one token in the top 200 posting positive gains for the day.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Conflux had the best performance, increasing by 69.8% to hit a daily high of $0.104, while Blur (BLUR) put on a gain of 53.58% and Stargate Finance climbed 31.56%.

The overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $1.097 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 42.4%.

By Jordan Finneseth

For Kitco News

Contact jfinneseth@kitco.com
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