Bitcoin’s price surged above $85,000 on Sept. 21 as a wave of forced short covering reshaped crypto derivatives markets, while a brief Bitfinex anomaly printed a BTC perpetual futures price near $155,000. Spot Bitcoin was trading around $84,500 to $85,200, but the episode highlighted the risks of leveraged trading during periods of thin liquidity.
According to CoinGlass, about $750.5 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated over 24 hours, with $648 million—roughly 86%—coming from short positions. Bitcoin liquidations accounted for approximately $360 million, while Ethereum contributed nearly $171 million. The largest single liquidation was an $11.29 million BTC/USDT position on Binance.
CryptoQuant data showed net taker volume on Binance jumped from about $11 million to $618 million within an hour as European trading opened, signaling a sudden imbalance toward market buyers. The firm partly attributed the shift to improving geopolitical sentiment linked to possible US-Iran diplomatic progress, which also supported risk appetite and pressured oil prices.
The Bitfinex incident was isolated to the BTC-PERP perpetual futures pair. While spot Bitcoin traded near $85,000, the contract briefly spiked to $153,960 before returning to market levels in less than a minute. Bitfinex’s BFX composite spot index did not exceed $84,406, confirming the move was a liquidity shortage on the exchange rather than a broader repricing. The vertical spike likely reflected a cascade of forced liquidations hitting a thin order book, with arbitrage bots quickly flattening the discrepancy.
Technically, the move above $85,000 pushed Bitcoin back above its 50-week moving average for the first time since November 2025, ending a 45-week stretch below the threshold. Galaxy Digital’s Alex Thorn noted that previous recoveries of the measure have often confirmed a bear-market low, though the signal has not been flawless. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju highlighted Bitcoin’s return above its 365-day moving average near $83,000, saying holding that level could encourage momentum traders and institutional investors to return.
Despite the price breakout, Santiment noted that new and active Bitcoin addresses remained near median levels between July 24 and Sept. 20. Social activity and transactions over $100,000 rose but did not reach two-month highs, leaving the rally increasingly dependent on fresh spot demand rather than forced buying from short liquidations.
