Bitcoin Touches $34K as $114 Million in Shorts Liquidated

After a Monday morning rally that saw the price of Bitcoin shoot past $31,000, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap got a second wind hours later, surpassing $34,000 later in the day, according to data from CoinGecko.

The new benchmark set a record high for 2023, reaching values not seen since last May, triggered a torrent of BTC shorts, leading to $114 million in liquidation in the last hour—and $145 million in total across crypto assets, according to analytics firm CoinGlass.

On leading crypto exchange Coinbase, BTC was trading at a premium closer to $35,000.

The pair of rallies to start the week have been attributed to building anticipation over the pending approval of Bitcoin spot ETF applications by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Earlier today, a Washington, D.C. judge officially ordered the SEC to take another look at a long-delayed and litigated spot Bitcoin ETF application from Grayscale, after the regulatory agency failed to respond to an earlier court inquiry.

Also today, global investment giant BlackRock updated its own application to note that it had started to take the preliminary steps needed to launch its Bitcoin spot ETF, including allocating funds and securing a ticker symbol. The moves don't guarantee an approval is coming, but they suggest confidence the SEC will eventually do so.

Crypto analysts are saying that both price spikes have pierced market resistance thresholds at $31,000 and $34,000 respectively, a bullish sign. Popular Crypto Twitter commentator Rekt Capital says the price action is likely to disprove the "Bearish Bitcoin Fractal," a pricing model that assumes price could rally to record highs before additional downside pulls it back down.