Bitcoin continued its upward trend on Wednesday, surpassing the $71,000 mark for the first time since June. The leading cryptocurrency experienced a 3.5% increase since midnight UTC and an impressive 11% rise over the past 24 hours, decisively breaking out of the trading range that had confined it since July 8.
This price movement was more mechanical than influenced by news. Bitcoin had been trading within a narrow band of approximately $62,000 to $66,900 for six weeks, with volatility dropping to levels not seen in years. This situation prompted traders to bet against price increases as the asset approached the upper limit of the range.
This created a substantial concentration of short positions between $65,000 and $67,000. The U.S. Treasury’s announcement to at least double long-term buyback operations to $4 billion helped lower the 30-year yield from 5.337%, its highest point since 2007. This shift drew interest into riskier assets, effectively breaking through the previously established ceiling.
Once this resistance was breached, approximately $3 billion in short positions were forcefully liquidated into a thin supply, leading to a surge in Bitcoin’s price of over 8% within just one hour.