Bitcoin hits $85,000 as short squeeze forces out $648 million of bearish bets — SkimNews
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- Bitcoin traded at $84,984, up 4.7% since midnight UTC, extending its break above the $82,284 high set on Sept. 4, with 95 of 100 CoinDesk 100 constituents green and the index up 3.0%.
- Short sellers absorbed $647.9 million of the $746.6 million in 24-hour liquidations, including $159.9 million in the past hour alone, on Coinglass data — Bitcoin shorts alone accounted for $277.5 million.
- Open interest climbed 7.59% to $156 billion as 24-hour volume jumped 39% to $224 billion, a pattern the source reads as traders replacing liquidated positions rather than stepping back from leverage.
- Crypto derivatives flipped bullish: the taker long-short volume ratio leaned 53% toward buyers for the first time in weeks, while Binance whales posted a structural derivatives long/short ratio above 2.0 despite a near-1.0 intraday ratio.
- CRO futures hit a record 536 million tokens in open interest, but annualized perpetual funding rates near 60% signal overcrowding and prime the token for a potential long squeeze, per the source.
- Sui led altcoin gains at $1.0073 (+12.3% since midnight) with futures OI up 28.9% to $402 million, while AI tokens — artificial superintelligence alliance (+8.9%) and bittensor (+7.0%) — replaced layer-2s at the front of the rally.
Why it matters: The rally is mechanical, not conviction-driven: $647.9 million of forced short closures did the buying while open interest climbed 7.59% to $156 billion and volume rose 39% to $224 billion. CRO's 60% funding rate shows the same leverage crowding now reaching altcoin derivatives, where 95 of 100 CD100 components are already green.
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