Benzinga - Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) shorts totaling more than $33 million were liquidated in the last 24 hours, coinciding with the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its policy unchanged.
What Happened: On Wednesday, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) made the expected move of leaving the benchmark fed funds rate range steady at 5.25%-5.50%. This decision prompted no surprises in the market.
As of now, Bitcoin is trading above $35,400. The apex cryptocurrency has confidently surpassed the $35,000 resistance level, which had previously limited its upward movement over the past two weeks.
According to data from Coinglass, a total of $33 million in BTC shorts were liquidated, out of the total of $46 million in BTC liquidations, during the past 24 hours. This resulted in the liquidation of 61,060 traders. The cumulative liquidation amount reached $150.68 million. Notably, the largest individual liquidation occurred on Binance, with a BTC-USDT value of $1.62 million.
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Why It Matters: Furthermore, the Fear and Greed Index indicates that Bitcoin market sentiment has climbed back to a level of 72, reflecting “Greed” among investors. This index evaluates the current sentiment in the Bitcoin market and translates it into a simple meter ranging from 0 to 100. A value of zero indicates “Extreme Fear,” while a value of 100 signifies “Extreme Greed.”
The awaited catalyst that could add further momentum is the approval of the first U.S.-based Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), predicted by J.P. Morgan to possibly occur before January 10.
Speculation surrounding the approval of BlackRock’s ETF application has recently sparked excitement, driving Bitcoin’s price back up to $35,000. This level had not been reached since the time before Terra Luna’s rise in 2022.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) was trading at $35,728.12, up 3.66% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro.
Photo by Oier Aso on Shutterstock
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