Ether, Solana Lead Crypto Short Squeeze as Bitcoin Nears $62K
Get the Finance newsletter
Daily finance — markets, central banks, M&A, the prints that move money. Free.
- Bitcoin traded around $61,360, up 2.5% over seven days and pushing toward $62,000 in the market's strongest week since mid-June, per CoinDesk data.
- Ether rose 4.2% in 24 hours to about $1,702 (up 9.7% weekly) while Solana held near $80 with an 18.6% weekly gain — the strongest among major tokens; XRP added 5.7% to $1.09.
- Bearish crypto traders lost $281 million to liquidations in 24 hours against $159 million in longs, with ether accounting for $157 million of wiped shorts versus bitcoin's $103 million in an unusual flip.
- Weaker U.S. June employment data trimmed expectations for further Federal Reserve rate hikes, weakening the dollar and lifting risk assets from crypto to Asian stocks.
- South Korea's Kospi climbed 3% after flirting with a technical bear market, and Samsung Electronics jumped 6.8% on reports that Anthropic is in talks to manufacture a custom AI chip.
- The open question is whether the squeeze becomes a trend: U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are still working through record monthly outflows and the third quarter opens with thinner liquidity.
- The largest single liquidation was an $18.2 million ether position on Hyperliquid, fitting a day when HYPE rose 5.1% and ether dominated the damage to bears.
Why it matters: Ether, not bitcoin, inflicted the largest share of damage on shorts ($157M vs. $103M) — an unusual flip that signals speculative positioning has rotated into altcoins, where thin liquidity can amplify follow-through moves if ETF outflows and the Fed's next signal don't cut the rally off.
