Bitcoin Tops $118,000, Triggers Record $1.1 Billion in Short Liquidations

Bitcoin (BTC) ripped to a new all-time high in U.S. pre-market hours on Friday, surpassing $118,000 and wiping out over $1 billion in short bets – the largest single-day short liquidation event on record.

This is the second day in a row that BTC’s price has clocked a record high. Bitcoin’s price had pared some of its gains at the time of writing, but remained above the $118,000 mark with a gain of over 6%. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment surged to ‘extremely bullish’ from ‘bearish’ a month ago. In that time, Bitcoin’s price has gained more than 8%.

Bitcoin’s upswing also led to a rally in Ethereum (ETH), Ripple’s native token XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Cardano (ADA), which saw the biggest upswing among major tokens. Cardano’s price jumped over 15% in the last 24 hours to touch $0.72, according to CoinGecko data.

Meanwhile, Ethereum’s price was trading just shy of $3,000 at the time of writing, with a gain of 7.6%. XRP saw a similar jump of 7.6% with its price crossing $2.6. Dogecoin’s price jumped over 10% and Solana’s token climbed 4% in the last 24 hours.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) was up 1.45% in pre-market trade to hit a fresh record, after hitting an all-time high of $64.81 on Wednesday when Bitcoin’s price surged past $112,000.

Stocktwits data predicted that sentiment and message volume indicated that there was room for Bitcoin to run after the apex cryptocurrency crossed the $112,000 on Wednesday. It showed that retail sentiment and message volume reset in late May, setting the stage for a breakout.

The sharp rally occurred after U.S. President Trump announced a fresh round of tariffs of up to 40% against Malaysia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Myanmar, and Laos on Thursday. Meanwhile, Japan saw its tariff rate lifted to 25% and the new rates go live on Aug. 1. It also comes ahead of 'Crypto Week' in Washington next week.

The resulting surge in Bitcoin’s price led to the highest overall liquidations since February, when the crypto market saw over $2.29 billion in liquidations within 24 hours after the Trump administration sparked fears of a trade war with its first set of tariffs on Canada and Mexico. However, a bulk of those liquidations – $1.89 billion – came from long positions.

This time around, Bitcoin’s rally caught short sellers unaware. Of the $1.29 billion wiped out between Thursday and Friday, over $1.14 billion came from short liquidations – the largest single-day liquidation event on record – according to CoinGlass data.

The highest number of short bets wiped out in a single day before this occurred in May, earlier this year, when $460 million in short positions were liquidated in a single day.

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Read also: Bitcoin's Breakout Supported By Retail Sentiment Reset