Bitcoin Price Hits $70,000 as Crypto Liquidations Top $235 Million

Bitcoin has passed the $70,000 mark for the first time in more than a month, since April 12. The price of the biggest digital asset is now at $70,225 per coin, data from CoinGecko shows, jumping 6% in 24 hours. And crypto liquidations are surging as a result, with short positions dominating the carnage.

The asset's rise comes as investors again flood the newly approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with money following weeks of outflows. Data on Monday showed that nearly $1 billion hit the new funds, which give investors exposure to the biggest digital asset.

The flood of investment comes after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics last week showed that inflation wasn't as high as expected in April in a report.

People invest in assets like Bitcoin if inflation is low, because it means the Federal Reserve will be more likely to cut interest rates—which stand at a 23-year high.

The cryptocurrency's surge today means that most other coins and tokens are shooting up in price. Traders betting on the price of the digital assets going down are therefore having their positions liquidated: in the past 24 hours, over $235 million in positions have been closed, CoinGlass data shows.

Some $63 million of that number is in Bitcoin short positions alone, part of $173 million in total crypto shorts liquidated over the past 24 hours.

Bitcoin in March touched a new all-time high of $73,737. It is now just 5% below that level. The coin's run appears to be mostly due to the new Bitcoin ETFs, which trade on traditional stock exchanges and allow investors to buy shares which track the price of the asset.

However, there may also be residual effects from the sudden price spike that Ethereum also just experienced on Monday afternoon, amid fresh speculation from analysts that an SEC approval of spot Ethereum ETFs is likely to happen this week.

Edited by Andrew Hayward