Bitcoin price surge tops $77K after $1.5B short squeeze

2 hours ago 21

Bitcoin just posted one of its sharpest rebounds of the year, and the numbers explain why traders are paying attention. The token climbed 7.9% over 24 hours to trade around $77,137, briefly touching an intraday high of $79,320, according to data cited by Decrypt. That kind of one-day move would be notable on its own, but this Bitcoin price surge arrived alongside a wave of forced short-position closures and a fresh round of regulatory signals out of Washington, making it a story with more moving parts than a simple price bounce.

Key takeaways

Bitcoin rose 7.9% in 24 hours to around $77,137, up 23.2% on the week, but still down about 31.8% from a year ago.
President Donald Trump backed the crypto market-structure Clarity Act at a White House meeting and signaled regulators were working to bring Hyperliquid onshore.
Roughly $1.5 billion in crypto positions were liquidated across 178,777 traders in 24 hours, with short positions accounting for about $1.21 billion.
The single largest liquidation was a $23.59 million Bitcoin position wiped out on Hyperliquid.
HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, jumped roughly 17% after Trump discussed a compliant U.S. path for the exchange.

Bitcoin’s Sharp Price Rally and Market Performance

Bitcoin’s latest jump pushed it up 23.2% for the week, marking one of its strongest short-term stretches in months. The rally still leaves the token roughly 31.8% below where it stood a year earlier, a reminder that even a sharp weekly gain doesn’t erase a longer stretch of weakness.

Daily and Weekly Price Gains

The move from around $71,000 to an intraday peak of $79,320 before settling near $77,137 shows how fast sentiment shifted. Bitcoin wasn’t moving alone, either — Ethereum, Solana and other major tokens climbed in tandem, suggesting the rally reflected broad market appetite rather than a bitcoin-specific event.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization approached $1.55 trillion during the surge, while 24-hour trading volume topped $69 billion, a level that points to unusually heavy participation from both spot buyers and leveraged traders.

Yearly Performance Comparison

Despite the week’s momentum, the year-over-year comparison keeps things in perspective. A 31.8% decline from last year’s levels means this rally, however dramatic in the short term, hasn’t fully reversed the broader downtrend that’s weighed on the market for months.

Regulatory Developments Boosting Market Sentiment

Much of the bullish energy behind this Bitcoin price surge traces back to a single event: a White House crypto meeting where President Trump signaled support for clearer market rules and floated a path for offshore exchanges to operate legally inside the United States.

President Donald Trump’s Endorsement of the Clarity Act

Trump backed the Clarity Act, a crypto market-structure bill, during the gathering, a move that helped juice sentiment across digital-asset markets. The meeting reportedly brought together regulators and industry executives, including Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Paul Atkins, alongside representatives from Coinbase, Ripple, Kraken, Robinhood, Gemini, Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by The Coin Republic.

Regulatory Push to Onshore Hyperliquid Exchange

Trump also signaled that regulators were working to bring the offshore perpetual-futures exchange Hyperliquid onshore. Per the Wall Street Journal’s account, Trump said Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Mike Selig was working on a compliant U.S. route for the platform, describing the effort as bringing Hyperliquid into the country in a “fully compliant legal fashion.”

That comment alone moved markets. HYPE, Hyperliquid’s native token, jumped as much as 17% to trade near $68.76, with futures volume reaching $4.94 billion and open interest climbing to about $2.97 billion, according to CoinGlass data reported by The Coin Republic. The token stayed below its June 16 all-time high of $76.87, and Trump’s remarks stopped short of confirming any formal licensing or completed registration — a distinction that matters, since Hyperliquid’s terms currently classify U.S.-based users as restricted on its hosted interface.

Why this matters: regulatory signals out of Washington are increasingly capable of moving crypto prices as fast as macroeconomic data or exchange-specific news, and that dynamic is reshaping how traders position around policy events rather than just earnings or inflation reports.

Massive Short Squeeze Drives Bitcoin Price Higher

Rising prices didn’t just reward bulls — they punished anyone betting against the market. According to CoinGlass, across 178,777 traders in the past 24 hours, approximately $1.5 billion in total crypto liquidations were recorded, including short positions making up roughly $1.21 billion of that total.

Scale and Impact of Crypto Liquidations

Bitcoin alone drove about $17.25 million in liquidations on the one-hour heatmap, a sign of how quickly leveraged bets unwound as the price climbed. The scale of forced closures across nearly 179,000 traders underscores how much leverage had built up in the system before the rally began.

How the Short Squeeze Unfolded on Hyperliquid

The single largest liquidation order in the past day was a $23.59 million Bitcoin position wiped out on Hyperliquid, the same exchange now at the center of the regulatory conversation. Analysts described the pattern as a textbook short squeeze, where rising prices force bearish traders to buy back their positions, and that buying pressure pushes prices even higher in a self-reinforcing loop.

This rebound follows a rough stretch for the market. Bitcoin had surged toward a recent high earlier in the week in a move that torched roughly $3 billion in shorts, and analysts remain split on whether this latest bout of momentum can hold. Given how much of the current rally rode on liquidations rather than fresh spot demand, the durability of this crypto short squeeze remains an open question — one that traders watching Hyperliquid regulation and the fate of the Clarity Act crypto bill will likely keep testing in the weeks ahead.

FAQ

What caused the recent surge in Bitcoin’s price?

The surge was driven by a combination of bullish regulatory sentiment, including President Trump’s endorsement of the Clarity Act, efforts to regulate Hyperliquid, and a large short squeeze forcing short sellers to liquidate.

How significant were the crypto liquidations during the Bitcoin price rise?

Approximately $1.5 billion worth of crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, with short positions accounting for about $1.21 billion, including the largest liquidation of $23.59 million on Hyperliquid.

What is the Clarity Act and how did President Trump influence the crypto market?

President Donald Trump backed the Clarity Act, a crypto market-structure bill, signaling regulators’ intent to bring offshore exchanges like Hyperliquid onshore, which boosted market confidence.