LIVE: Why Bitcoin is rallying and oil is down today

Bitcoin rallied to $85,194 on Monday morning, putting it 5.4% higher over the past day and taking it well beyond the $82,284 level reached on Sept. 4.

Over the last 24 hours, roughly $746 million in crypto positions were wiped out, with $647.9 million coming from shorts.

The stress increased with the past few hours, with $159.9 million disappearing from the market between 08:30am to 09:30 am UTC time. Of this, about 95% had come from people taking positions expecting prices to fall.

Bitcoin alone had lost $277.5 million, and Ether had lost $122.8 million in short trades, based on Coinglass.

Even at this point, the traders continue buying more rather than exiting the market. The crypto total open interest increased by 7.59% to $156 billion. Meanwhile, the total trade volume over the last 24 hours has increased by 39% to $224 billion.

That matters because even as losing bearish bets are being closed, fresh positions are still coming in. Traders are basically replacing the leverage that is getting flushed out instead of moving to the sidelines.

The futures market is showing the same change in tone. The taker long-short ratio is now close to 53% on the bullish side, the first time in weeks that buyers have held that edge.

Bitcoin futures positioning has also picked up. Total open interest moved above 700,000 BTC for the first time in several weeks.

Meanwhile, oil fell again Monday for a fourth session in a row after President Donald Trump suggested talks with Iran were still possible.

Brent crude for November delivery dropped 2.6% to $101.17 a barrel by press time, while West Texas Intermediate for October delivery fell 2.5% to $97.78.

Donald Trump told Fox News that he would likely be willing to sit down with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during this week’s UN General Assembly.

So far, crude shipments out of the Middle East have continued without a major breakdown, even after Saudi Arabia closed its East-West pipeline following attacks.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose 450 points, or 0.9%. S&P 500 futures added 0.7%, while Nasdaq-100 futures climbed 1%.

While that is happening, the Dow Jones fell 1.7% in the past week, its worst weekly performance since March. On the other hand, the S&P 500 fell slightly by 0.1%, while the Nasdaq gained 0.7%.

Bond yields moved down with crude. The 10-year Treasury yield fell by more than 3 basis points to 4.957%, while the 30-year yield dropped by a similar amount to 5.294%.

Investors are still dealing with stubborn inflation and expensive borrowing costs after the Federal Reserve increased rates last week for the first time in three years.