Bitcoin Just Had One of Its Biggest Short Squeezes of 2026

 


Bitcoin's April 23 price move from $76,351 to $79,447 looked like a breakout. The 4% gain pulled attention back to crypto after weeks of sideways trading near the $75,000 range. But on-chain data published by CryptoQuant puts a very different label on what actually happened.

This was not a spot-driven rally. It was a short squeeze, and a large one.

On April 22, Bitcoin short liquidations hit $607.9 million in a single day. Ethereum added another $580.9 million in short liquidations on the same session. Combined, over $1.19 billion in bearish derivatives positions were forced to close in roughly 24 hours. That is not normal session activity. That is a market clearing one side of a crowded trade by force.

Open interest across BTC futures went from $24.88 billion to approximately $28 billion during the price leg. That expansion did not represent fresh conviction from buyers. It reflected the mechanical closing of short positions, which requires buying the underlying asset. The price moved up because shorts had to buy, not because buyers chose to buy.

Carmelo Alemán, an on-chain analyst verified at CryptoQuant, laid out the full structural reading on X under his account @oro_crypto. His conclusion was pointed: price action built on derivatives leverage rather than genuine spot demand stays fragile. The structure can reverse the moment short-side pressure rebuilds.

The long side of the trade barely registered damage. Total long liquidations across BTC and ETH came in at just $111.3 million against over $1.19 billion in short wipeouts. The imbalance confirms just how one-sided the derivatives market was heading into the squeeze.

For anyone holding BTC or watching the next price leg, the question Alemán raises is the right one. Did spot buying follow the squeeze? If not, the same setup can rebuild. Open interest, funding rates, and spot flow data in the coming sessions will answer that.

For the full forensic breakdown of the April 23 short squeeze, including open interest charts and exact liquidation data split between Bitcoin and Ethereum, read the complete analysis at CryptoNewsLive.org.

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