Crypto Market Regains $1T Capitalization, Records 3-Month-High Liquidations Despite Bitcoin Price Surge

Bitcoin, the world's largest crypto asset by market capitalization, opened the week with a remarkable price surge that revived investors' interest in the market, but it wasn't enough to prevent more than $500 million in liquidations, the highest recorded in three months.

The cryptocurrency market regained the $1 trillion capitalization at the start of the week, despite worrying signs of the market bottoming.

Bitcoin started the year on a positive note when it traded in green but on Monday, revived hope when it climbed the price level of $21,118, showing a 25% spike over the year and an impressive performance from last Tuesday's price of $17,400.

But before last week ended, global charts for crypto future markets Coinalyze collated data showing over $500 million in shorts or bets against higher prices, which recorded the highest level of liquidation since October 2022.

The figures mean that more than 70% of traders recorded losses.

Centralized crypto exchange OKX recorded $256 million worth of short losses Friday last week, which is the highest among all crypto exchange platforms.

Binance, the CEX that had the worst 2022 when it saw around $12 billion in withdrawals, recorded $125 million in short losses.

Huobi, the crypto exchange rumored to be cutting off its workforce by 20%, saw $42 million, based on the data from CoinGlass, a crypto futures trading and data platform.

APT coin, the native currency of the Aptos blockchain, which showed an impressive performance over the past week when its price doubled in value, saw more than $10 million in liquidations.

"There's certainly an increasing sense of optimism about 2023 as we make our way through the opening month of the year. The economic data has been kind, to say the least, which is not something we were afforded for the vast majority of the year just gone," OANDA senior market analyst Craig Erlam explained

The analyst also explained the reason behind the surge in Bitcoin.

"A boost in risk appetite has triggered a surge in bitcoin which spent the final weeks of last year languishing between $16,000 and $17,000. It is up more than 25% since the turn of the year, breaking back above $20,000 this morning in the process," the analyst wrote in a note.

Meanwhile, Founder Eight CEO and trader who goes by the Twitter handle @CryptoMichNL believed that "Bitcoin [is] trying to break resistance, might actually seek for a sweep of $21.6K."

As of 4:56 a.m. ET on Tuesday, Bitcoin was trading up 1.76% at $21,183.13 with a 24-hour volume of $22,331,867,188, based on the latest data from CoinMarketCap.