Bitcoin $80K triggers $302M short liquidations as bears unwind

Bitcoin briefly tagged $80,594 and then traded near $79,851, sparking large risk-off/risk-on swings in leverage markets. Over the past 24 hours, total crypto liquidations reached $370 million across 97,235 traders, with $301.93 million coming from short positions. The largest single wipeout was an $11.77M ETH/USDT short on Binance. This is the second short liquidation squeeze in two weeks. Analysts note funding on BTC perpetuals has stayed negative for most of April, meaning shorts have been paying longs—so upside moves force a faster unwind. The article frames the move as potentially “structural” given repeated squeezes: April 18’s setup wiped out $593M in shorts when BTC pushed above $77,000. Broader derivatives positioning also improved. Bitcoin futures open interest rose to 763.35K BTC (from a May 1 low of 707.24K), and 24-hour cumulative volume delta turned positive, suggesting buyers are driving market order flow. Ethereum and Zcash also saw open-interest gains alongside positive funding and positive CVD—supporting the case that short liquidations are amplifying demand. Not all tokens look balanced: Monero and other contracts show elevated funding (>60%), increasing the risk of additional long squeezes if momentum stalls. Options show calmer 30-day implied volatility for BTC/ETH, while Deribit put skews have weakened, indicating less demand for downside hedges and more upside call interest. Separately, RWA tokens rallied after the CLARITY Act yield compromise added regulatory clarity. Ondo’s ONDO led (up ~11% in 24h), and the piece cites broader RWA tokenization growth.