Bitcoin Price Scales Above $71,000, Resulting in $325 Million in Crypto Liquidations

The crypto market was flashing green on May 21 following an amazing recovery on May 20, with most top-cap cryptocurrencies rising by as much as 5%.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose 9% from a low of $66,057 on May 20 to an intra-day high of $71,998 on May 21. The big crypto has climbed 6.4% over the last 24 hours to trade at $71,140, while Ether (ETH) increased by a bigger percentage, up 18.5% to exchange hands $3,660, according to data from Coin360. This performance took Bitcoin’s dominance to 52.68%.

The global crypto market capitalization has ascended by 9% over the last 48 hours to $2.61 trillion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Broadly speaking, most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies have increased over the same period. The other most notable gain over the last 48 hours was witnessed by Avalanche (AVAX), which was up 18%.

Apart from Dogecoin, other top-cap memecoins were still witnessing a recovery. Shiba Inu (SHIB) posted over 6% losses over the last 48 hours and 2% on the day to $0.00002597. The most notable gains are being witnessed by Pepe (PEPE) holders which had increased by 20%. Solana-based memecoins Bonk (BONK) and Boon of Meme (MEME) recorded 3.2% and 4.4% gains over the last 24 hours, respectively.

Leveraged liquidations drive crypto prices higher

The rise in the prices of major cryptocurrencies has led to a rush of liquidations across the derivatives market. Short derivatives traders appear to have been caught off guard, leading to a quick spat of leveraged liquidations.

In the past 48 hours leading to May 21 over $324 million in crypto positions had been liquidated across the crypto market, with $178 million wiped out in the last 24 hours. Of these, $78million were short liquidations. $26 million short BTC positions have been liquidated over the past 24 hours, according to data from Coinglass.

Over 64,448 traders were liquidated, with the largest single liquidation being XBTUSD on Bitmex, valued at $4.26 million.

Bitcoin price rounded bottom points to a target above $80,000

The BTC price action has formed a rounded bottom chart pattern on the daily chart, as shown below. The price is now fighting immediate resistance from the neckline of the rounded bottom chart pattern at $72,000.

A daily candlestick close above this level would confirm a bullish breakout from the governing chart pattern. If this happens, it would clear the way toward the technical target of $87,400. Such a move would represent a 25% ascend from the current level, ushering BTC into a parabolic uptrend.

Apart from the highly bullish technical setup, Bitcoin’s positive outlook was supported by upward-facing moving averages. The price was sitting on top of these moving averages, which provided areas of strong support on the downside. The RSI was northbound, and the price strength at 61 suggested that the bulls were controlling the price.

On the downside, failure to maintain above $68,000 would suggest the bulls' inability to sustain the higher levels. In the meantime, the key levels to watch would be the psychological levels at $65,000 and $62,000 and later the 100-day EMA at $61,520.