The week began with cryptocurrencies rising strongly, overcoming their recent correction phase, with bitcoin once again trading close to its 2021 peak values.
During early U.S. trading hours on Monday, Bitcoin (BTC) soared beyond $69,000, breaking through the barrier for the first time in 10 days and rising more than 5% in the previous day. During the same time frame, ether (ETH) increased by 4% as well, while the tokens of two significant layer 1 networks, Solana (SOL) and Avalanche (AVAX), increased by almost 10%.
Nearly every digital asset was involved in the rise; the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) was up 4.5% on the day and all of its components were in the green.
According to CoinGlass statistics, the abrupt rebound liquidated $195 million in leveraged derivatives bets across all crypto assets, of which $129 million were short positions aimed at taking advantage of falling prices. The amount of bitcoin that was shorted hit $53 million, which is less than the daily average for the last few months.
The quantity of short liquidations was less than typical, indicating that few market players were placing leveraged bets on the continuation of the decline.