Over $465M Bitcoin positions liquidated as BTC reclaimed $50,000

TL;DR Breakdown:

• Over $465 million short Bitcoin positions have been liquidated as BTC retouched $50,000. 
• The increase in Bitcoin follows a massive drop in all exchange balances, as analyst Will Clemente predicted.

In less than 24 hours, more than $465 million worth of Bitcoin positions has been liquidated following the increase in BTC to over $50,000. This accounts for all the short futures Bitcoin positions in several derivative trading platforms that got over-leveraged due to the sudden increase in Bitcoin.

$158 million Bitcoin positions closed on OKEx

According to CryptoRank, OKEx had the most liquidated value. More than $158 million worth of short Bitcoin positions were forcedly closed on their platform, followed by Bybit, which recorded about $142 million BTC liquidation. The leading crypto exchange, Binance, only had $59 million short positions that were liquidated.

The liquidation of Bitcoin positions is a common occurrence, given the volatile nature of the asset. An increase or decrease in the price of Bitcoin would liquidate short or long positions, respectively. The liquidation of shorts is considered as a boost to the price, as it also gives room for more long positions. 

There has been about a 6.6 percent increase in open interest in Bitcoin Futures over the last 24 hours, and Binance has over $4.55 billion worth of open interest. 

Will Clemente Predicted $50,000 BTC

Bitcoin previously touched $50,000 on August 23. However, there were a lot of inflows and selling at that level, which pushed down Bitcoin. Just before this uptick to $50,000 again, BTC balance on exchanges dropped significantly, which suggests investors are accumulating again. 

From the chart, one can easily depict that Bitcoin price is inversely correlated to the price. Hence, Bitcoin is likely to continue soaring if investors keep accumulating it.