Bitcoin climbed past $99,000 on Christmas day, driven by renewed optimism that energized the market.
According to CryptoSlate’s data, the leading digital asset gained over 5% in the last 24 hours, recovering from a weekly low of $92,973. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $98,000, showing the rebound wasn’t long-lived after days of declining prices.
Altcoins joined the recovery, with Ethereum, XRP, and Solana each posting gains of over 4%.
Notably, this momentum has lifted the global crypto market cap by 3.5% to $3.44 trillion. At the same time, the Crypto Fear and Greed Index climbed to 73, showing a sentiment of “Greed.”
This bullish trend aligns with forecasts from Santiment, a blockchain analytics firm. The platform highlighted that market rebounds often follow panic-driven retail sell-offs, allowing larger investors, or “whales,” to accumulate assets at discounted prices.
It stated:
“Historically, when retail traders begin to sell based on panic and emotion, whales and sharks have opportunities to scoop up more coins with little resistance, creating bounces.”
$300 million in liquidations
The recent rally has not come without its share of turbulence. Data from CoinGlass revealed that over $290 million was liquidated in the past 24 hours, impacting 105,883 traders.
Short positions accounted for most of these losses, with $162 million wiped out as Bitcoin prices climbed. On the other hand, traders with long positions betting on further upward momentum faced $128 million in liquidations.
Bitcoin traders experienced the heaviest liquidation losses, with $78 million wiped out, followed by Ethereum traders, who saw $51 million in liquidations.
Meanwhile, the largest single liquidation occurred on Okx, involving a $6.9 million ETH-USDT transaction, underscoring the market’s heightened volatility.
