Bitcoin shorts scramble for the exits as BTC climbs

Markets

Share

Share this article

Copy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmail

Bitcoin shorts scramble for the exits as BTC climbs

Bitcoin surged from an intraday low near $86,200 to reclaim $90,000, driven by aggressive spot buying and a wave of short liquidations.

By James Van Straten, Oliver Knight|Edited by Sheldon Reback

Dec 17, 2025, 3:41 p.m.

Bears head for exits (Pixabay)

What to know:

• Over $110 million in bitcoin short positions were liquidated in the past hour, according to Coinglass, alongside a muted rise in open interest
• The action points to spot-driven demand rather than leveraged bets driving BTC's surge to $90,000.
• Bitcoin’s cumulative volume delta jumped 1,100% during the rally, signaling aggressive buying pressure not seen since early December.
• Global Macro Investor’s Julien Bittel says an "oversold" RSI reading supports a prolonged bull market, arguing the traditional four-year cycle has broken down as bitcoin dominance climbs toward 60%.

More than $110 million in bitcoin BTC$87,018.43 short positions were liquidated as the largest cryptocurrency climbed to $90,000 from an intraday low of $86,200 on Wednesday.

The price surge in bitcoin coincided with a relatively subdued drop in futures open interest, suggesting that those in short positions either covered their positions to minimize risk or were liquidated.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW

Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters

Sign me up

By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Coinglass data shows the short positions were liquidated in the past hour, with the majority of those occurring on bitcoin trading pairs.

The muted change open interest suggests the move was driven by investors buying spot, as opposed to leveraged products.

Bitcoin's cumulative volume delta (CVD) rose by 1,100% during the spike, indicating that aggressive buyers are overpowering sellers. That's behavior not seen since Dec. 1.

Altcoins lagged bitcoin's move for the most part as bitcoin dominance climbed back towards 60%, a far cry from September when it reached as low as 56.7%.

Over the past year, Wednesday has been the strongest performing weekday for bitcoin, data from Velo shows.

Oversold RSI signals an extended bitcoin bull market

Julien Bittel, the head of macro research at Global Macro Investor argues that bitcoin's recent price action is consistent with historical recoveries following "oversold" RSI readings, with the latest RSI breaking below 30 which occurred in September 2025.

Bittel said the traditional four year cycle is no longer valid, not because of the halving, but due to shifts in debt refinancing, longer term maturities and liquidity dynamics. The current bull market will extend into 2026, Bittel said.

Bitcoin Newsopen interest

More For You

Protocol Research: GoPlus Security

By CoinDesk Research

Nov 14, 2025

Commissioned byGoPlus

What to know:

• As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
• GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
• Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.

View Full Report

More For You

Hut 8 and Coinbase outperform as Crypto stocks jump on bitcoin's sudden rally

By Francisco Rodrigues|Edited by Aoyon Ashraf

9 minutes ago

Mining stocks, trading platforms, and cryptocurrency infrastructure firms saw significant gains, including Hut 8, Riot Platforms, and Coinbase.

What to know:

• The price of bitcoin (BTC) surged over 2.8% in an hour, rising above $90,000 to mark a fresh session high and triggering gains across crypto-linked companies.
• Mining stocks, trading platforms, and cryptocurrency infrastructure firms saw significant gains, with HUT, RIOT, and COIN rallying.
• The broader cryptocurrency market is also showing signs of renewed momentum, with other cryptocurrencies, such as Ether and XRP, also seeing gains of 2.3% and 2.5%, respectively, and Bitcoin treasury firm Strategy (MSTR) rising 1.6%.

Read full story

Latest Crypto News

Hut 8 and Coinbase outperform as Crypto stocks jump on bitcoin's sudden rally

9 minutes ago

Bitcoin re-takes $90,000 as price spikes early in U.S. session

27 minutes ago

Most Influential: Vlad Tenev

46 minutes ago

Most Influential: Paul Atkins

46 minutes ago

Most Influential: Caroline Pham

46 minutes ago

Most Influential: Carlos Domingo

46 minutes ago

Top Stories

Bitcoin re-takes $90,000 as price spikes early in U.S. session

27 minutes ago

Don't call it QE — the Fed's $40 billion bill buys may not shake crypto out of slump

1 hour ago

Hut 8 stock surges 20% on Fluidstack AI data center deal

1 hour ago

Memecoin boom turns into capitulation one year after $150 billion market peak

6 hours ago

Wall Street giant DTCC Picks privacy focused blockchain Canton Network for tokenization

2 hours ago

Bitcoin trades near key price safety net that Strategy already breached

8 hours ago