Bitcoin Climbs in High-Volume Trading

By Kirk MaltaisMajor cryptocurrencies rose sharply in heavy-trading volumes, bringing prices to their highest levels in months.Bitcoin is up 6.5% to nearly $69,000 Wednesday, which is the highest it has traded since late May, according to data from CoinGlass. Trading volume is the largest since July, at roughly $82 billion over the past 24 hours.Accompanying the surge in activity is a rush of liquidations of short positions held in bitcoin perpetual futures. More than $1 billion in short positions have been liquidated in the past four hours, according to CoinGlass data.The move comes ahead of Wednesday afternoon's release of the Federal Reserve's July meeting minutes. "The market is leaning toward the Fed's three hawkish dissenters at the July meeting being a minority rather than a signal of a broader tightening cycle," said Nicolai Sondergaard, senior research analyst with Nansen.The Treasury Department's increased buyback of longer-dated Treasurys is driving the short squeeze and price jump, said Lacie Zhang, an analyst with Bitget Wallet. "This immediately improves risk sentiment and tends to benefit high-beta assets such as BTC," said Zhang.Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, rose 9.7% to $2,098, breaking the $2,000-mark for the first time since May. Other major crypto tokens rose as well, with XRP up 6.9% to $1.07, solana up 6.6% to $81.93 and HYPE up 6.6% to $62.39.Bitcoin cleaved more than half of its value since hitting a peak of $126,198 in October. Over the summer, analysts have observed tepid spot market activity for bitcoin, along with institutional investors pulling capital from bitcoin ETFs in favor of other more-lucrative investments.Write to Kirk Maltais at [email protected]