It’s been a rather interest week for Bitcoin, considering the record liquidation levels that occurred on Friday. Roughly $19 billion worth of Bitcoin leveraged positions were liquidated as price crashed.
Bitcoin price appeared to have cooled down after the massive liquidation events. However, market data revealed that roughly $19 billion worth of shorts were executed barely 24 hours later.
Bitcoin exchange liquidation map revealed that the cumulative short liquidation leverage amounted to over $19 billion.
In other words, the amount of leveraged Bitcoin shorts amounted to the same level as the recent long liquidations.
Here’s Why Bitcoin Could be Preparing for a Short‑Squeeze Induced Rally
The leveraged liquidations stretched all the way to the $130,000 price level. This means a Bitcoin shorts liquidation‑induced melt‑up could potentially be on the cards.
Such a short squeeze may fuel a push into a new ATH especially if backed by robust whale and institutional demand.
The latest liquidation event meant that whales were on the hunt, and leveraged traders were the prey.
Bearish expectations on account of the escalating tariff wars explain the sudden surge in short positions. However, the expectations of more downside may end up being a trap for the bears.
Market data revealed that demand from the whale cohort was already making a comeback.
Whales acquired over $68 million worth of Bitcoin on Binance spot, and over $7 million on OKX in the last 24 hours. However, Coinbase still experienced roughly $16 million worth of spot outflows.
In summary, whales contributed $59 million worth of net spot buys on the three major exchanges in the last 24 hours.
Whales also executed about $3.5 billion worth of long positions on OKX and Binance futures.
The spot and derivatives activity across the centralized exchanges confirmed that whales were betting on the upside. This coincided with the expectations of a robust potential bullish pivot.
However, a sharp bullish pivot requires heavy inflows from whales and institutions. This is why Bitcoin spot ETF flows in the coming week could validate or break probability of a robust bullish recovery.
Here’s Why Bitcoin Could Still be on a Bullish Trajectory
Bitcoin Archive revealed that an anonymous analyst predicted that Bitcoin would achieve a cycle top on 6 October 2025.
Interestingly, BTC price achieved its latest top above $126,000 on the exact day predicted.
Whether the prediction was legitimate was still up for debate. However, this prediction may feed into the bearish expectations among investors.
This could potentially feed into the build‑up towards a short squeeze. Bitcoin also had bullish predictions before its recent crash and market dynamics may discredit the prediction that $126,270 was the local top.
Especially considering that the market just entered a monetary easing phase. Moreover, recent robust demand from institutions hardly points towards cycle‑top expectations.
Bitcoin exchange reserves only registered a slight uptick despite the latest price pullback.
A top would likely be characterized by a rising exchange inflows. In this case, Bitcoin exchange inflows indicated that investors were still holding on to their coins with long‑term intent despite the recent crash.
Although a short squeeze seemed to be forming, it is worth noting that open interest cooled down by more than $25 billion in the last 24 hours. This may limit the potential short‑squeeze impact.