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Bitcoin traded at $86,534.71 on Tuesday, up 6.6% over the past 24 hours and at its highest level since January, according to CoinGecko. The advance accelerated as the price cleared successive resistance levels, triggering a wave of short-seller liquidations that added forced buying pressure. Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP all extended gains over the same period, and crypto-related stocks including Coinbase Global, Strategy and Riot Platforms rallied alongside the broader move.
A liquidation map shows the price levels at which leveraged derivatives positions would be automatically closed out, converting into forced buy or sell orders. On Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetuals exchange whose order book CoinMarketCap draws on for its Bitcoin liquidation map, long positions sit exposed below the current price and short positions above it, with each level's bar sized by the leveraged position value stacked there.
At the time the map was captured, bitcoin traded at $85,798.67 on Hyperliquid, up 5.5%. It showed $91.75 million in long positions exposed to liquidation at $81,550, about 5% below spot, and $61.77 million in short positions exposed at $95,750, about 11.5% above spot. The single largest cluster on the chart, $219.38 million in potential liquidations, sits at $136,850, well above the current price. Across all levels shown, the map placed $1.54 billion in long liquidation exposure below the current price against $1.25 billion in short liquidation exposure above it.
That short-side exposure has fed Tuesday's rally. As bitcoin cleared successive levels over the past 24 hours, forced buying from liquidated short sellers added to the move, a dynamic traders describe as a short squeeze. A further advance toward the $95,750 cluster on Hyperliquid could trigger another round of short liquidations, while a reversal toward $81,550 would test the long positions stacked just below current levels.
The rally carried into crypto-related equities. Coinbase Global (COIN) gained 3.5% to $201.05, Strategy (MSTR) rose 9.47% to $168.50, Marathon Digital (MARA) added 1.89% to $13.49, and Riot Platforms (RIOT) climbed 4.76% to $24.88, according to Yahoo Finance quote data. Robinhood Markets (HOOD) rose 2.9% to $123.30. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) exchange-traded fund gained a more modest 0.6% to $43.30 during the regular session, then added a further 1.2% in after-hours trading as bitcoin extended its gains past the US market close.
Falling oil prices have eased inflation concerns and pulled Treasury yields lower, a backdrop that has also supported the rally. Traders appear to be looking past two recent setbacks for the industry, the Federal Reserve's September 16 policy decision and the Senate's September 15 failure to advance the Clarity Act, a digital asset market structure bill.
US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds added $617.6 million in net inflows on September 21, according to Farside Investors, indicating that fresh spot demand from ETF investors reinforced the short squeeze rather than the rally being driven by derivatives positioning alone.
