Over Two Days, Crypto Traders Liquidated $1.2 Billion in Shorts

On December 16, the day Bitcoin surpassed the psychological threshold of $20,000, and the day before, traders closed short positions totaling $1.2 billion. This was 3.7 times the volume of longs liquidated over that period, according to data from analytics platform Bybt

The scale of the unwinds of short positions in these days was the largest since the metric began being tracked in mid-September.

Data: Bybt.

In the last 24 hours, traders closed 87,841 positions across nine Bybt-tracked assets, with a shorts-to-longs ratio of 3:1 and a total volume of $1.1 billion. The largest liquidation was about $10 million.

Such a ratio, three to one, in favour of short positions could persist in light of new records. On December 17, Bitcoin broke through the $23,000 level. Double-digit growth rates as of writing are also evident in other assets from Bybt’s sample, except XRP and USDT.

Data: Bybt.

Earlier, amid Bitcoin’s new records, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong reminded investors of the risks accompanying increased volatility. In his words, the cryptocurrency market “can move in any direction.”

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