Bitcoin Rips Past $85K for the First Time Since January as $750M in Shorts Get Liquidated

Bitcoin ripped through $85,000 Monday morning — tagging an intraday high of $85,190, and briefly touching ~$86,000 per the Wall Street Journal — the first time BTC has traded above $85K since January. The move came with a ~6% gain over 24 hours and a trail of wrecked short positions.

Per CoinGlass data, roughly $750 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in a single day — and about 86% of that was shorts. Bitcoin alone accounted for ~$360 million of the wipeout. This is a textbook short squeeze: bears betting against the rally got forced out as price ripped higher.

The bid underneath it is real. Spot Bitcoin ETFs pulled ~$433 million in inflows on Friday, led by BlackRock and Fidelity, for ~$593 million combined across Thursday and Friday. And Michael Saylor's Strategy bought 950 more BTC last week for $75.7 million — the firm now holds 846,000 BTC, worth roughly $72 billion.

Regulators are moving too: the SEC and CFTC are advancing digital-asset rulemaking after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate.

FTT also surged 33% on speculative demand as the broader market caught fire.

🧠 SNUBBZ TAKE: You can't fight the bid AND the ETFs. The shorts just paid $750M in tuition this morning — textbook squeeze. Saylor stacking 950 more BTC is the loudest conviction signal in the room. January highs are back; the only question is who's brave enough to short $90K. 📈

You holding BTC through this run or taking profits before $90K? 👇