Bitcoin is priced at $85,000, and the evaporation of $648 million has led to a massive takeover.

The Bitcoin price breached the $85,000 threshold, and a centralized liquidation of short position accelerated this momentum, allowing the crypto market to emerge from its strongest single phase rally since January. According to CryptoSlate data, BTC has risen more than 5% in the past 24 hours, once touching $85,193, with an accumulated gain of about 29% over 35 days.

Massive liquidation of the airline

go short traders were caught off guard by this turn of events. According to CoinGlass data, approximately $7505 million in leveraged positions have been taken on liquidation over the past 24 hours, with more than $648 million coming from short positions, accounting for about 86% of a total of 137,386 traders exposed to liquidation .

liquidation was synchronized with aggressive buying in the derivatives market. CryptoQuant data showed that within an hour of European trading openings, net proceeds for Binance jumped from about $11 million to $618 million, showing a sudden preponderance of purchasing power.

However, high leverage is also amplifying price volatility. Bitcoin Unlevered Contracts currently stand at around $28.83 billion, close to the peak reached in May, and a large number of derivatives positions remain vulnerable when prices fluctuate wildly. This structure remains favorable for bulls if prices continue to rise and more overheads are forced back; however, once momentum loses momentum, leveraged overhead may quickly level off, causing the uptrend mechanism to be reversed into selling pressure.

Technically confirmed bear market terminal?

While breaking through $85,000, the Bitcoin also surpassed technical levels observed by traders for several months. Last week, BTC closed above its 50-week average for the first time since November 2025, ending 45 consecutive weeks of bearish suppression. According to Alex Thorn, research director at Galaxy Digital, historical recoveries often strongly confirm that a bottom has been formed in bear market .

CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju is focused on another key moving average: Bitcoin resets to a 365-day moving average near $83,000, which could attract the momentum traders and institutions had previously anticipated.

on-chain Failure to synchronize activities

It is noteworthy that the strength of the market did not lead to a corresponding increase in on-chain activity. According to analytics company Santiment, between July 24 and September 20, Bitcoin new addresses and active addresses remained near the median number, although prices continued to rise.

Compared to the August 21 round, which saw an increase of almost 7%, a smaller technical breakthrough generated more wallet activity with new addresses reaching 1.07 times the baseline and active addresses rising to 1.14 times. Santiment added that as many as 10 additional trading days in the past two months were higher than the September 18 breakout.

On the derivatives side, the performance was much stronger: on September 18, outstanding contracts jumped by about 9% and maintained a high level, further highlighting the gap between leverage participation and real activity.

This decoupling means that the continuation of this trend is increasingly dependent on whether new demand for cash can keep up with it. The forced buyout brought about by liquidation of empty stocks could push prices through resistance level , but its marginal effect diminishes as short position is emptied out.