Bitcoin Price Pulls Back as Leveraged Bulls Get Wiped Out

Key Facts

• About $444 million in long positions were liquidated in the 24 hours to 5:14 p.m. ET Wednesday, the most since Sept. 15, CoinGlass data shows.

• Nearly $925 million in short bets were liquidated on Sept. 21, so the rally may now depend more on spot buyers than on forced buying.

• Bitcoin is trading just above $84,000, the line Glassnode says separates a path toward $96,700 from a retest of $77,000.

Crypto traders betting on higher prices had about $444 million in positions

in the 24 hours to Wednesday afternoon, the most since Sept. 15, CoinGlass

shows. The question is whether the Bitcoin (

) rally can hold without the short squeeze that came before it.

Long positions made up about 77% of the roughly $580 million liquidated across the market. The selling came on the same day a Fed official pointed to more rate hikes.

"In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely to be needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion," Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr

in a speech in Chicago.

CoinGlass data puts about $380 million of the long liquidations between roughly 5 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. Open interest—the value of outstanding

positions—fell about 4% over 24 hours to $151.4 billion.