Bitcoin has climbed back above $80,000 on November 4 as crypto liquidations ripped through leveraged shorts, wiping out roughly $378 million in one hour.
According to CoinGlass data, total forced closures in that window reached about $466.33 million, with shorts accounting for roughly 81% of the damage while longs made up a much smaller share.
Bitcoin traded near $80,470 during the surge, up about 4.1% over 24 hours after bouncing from the mid-$76,000 area, while Ethereum jumped about 6.1% to roughly $2,428.
For Bitcoin investors, the most interesting development is not only the reclaim of $80,000 but how quickly short sellers were forced to cover into strength.
The bigger question now is whether this squeeze can mature into a sustained hold above $80,000 after recent ETF withdrawals and post-midterm volatility.
What Triggered the Wave of Crypto Liquidations?
Liquidations occur when exchanges close leveraged positions because traders no longer have enough collateral to keep them open.
In this case, traders betting on falling prices drove the majority of the forced closures as Bitcoin punched higher.
CoinGlass’s overlapping windows underline how concentrated the move was.
Across four hours, short liquidations totaled about $386.16 million, and nearly all of that — roughly 98% — landed in the latest hour alone.
Over 12 hours, market-wide liquidations climbed to about $652 million, with shorts still dominant at roughly $526.44 million.
We believe that mix is constructive for Bitcoin: a short-heavy squeeze often amplifies upside once price breaks a crowded level, even if the dashboard itself records closed positions rather than fresh spot buying.
How Did Bitcoin and Ethereum Lead the Squeeze?
On the 24-hour heatmap, Bitcoin accounted for about $396.18 million in liquidations, with shorts representing roughly 75.9% of that total.
Ethereum followed with about $236.55 million, of which roughly 55.9% came from shorts.
Solana and Zcash also appeared in the mix, but Bitcoin clearly set the tone.
Across the broader market, about 117,560 traders faced liquidation over 24 hours, with total forced closures near $914.84 million.
Shorts made up about $554.81 million of that total, while longs accounted for roughly $360.02 million.
Binance held the largest exchange share at about 38.9%, and the largest single liquidation captured in the snapshot was a $38 million ETH-USDT position on HTX.
As we covered when buyers began pressing toward $80,000, the path back through that level was already attracting attention before today’s squeeze.
Did ETF Outflows Set Up a Buying Opportunity?
The rebound arrived after several sessions of withdrawals from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs.
According to Bitfinex, those funds recorded about $1.16 billion in outflows across three trading sessions — their largest such stretch since late June.
BlackRock’s IBIT alone saw about $405.3 million in outflows on November 2, which the exchange described as the fund’s biggest daily withdrawal this year.
We would frame that selling as a reset rather than a breakdown.
ETF redemptions created space for leveraged shorts to pile in below $80,000, and today’s crypto liquidations show how quickly that crowded trade can reverse when Bitcoin reclaims the level.
Bitfinex’s own condition for identifying renewed institutional demand remains clear: three consecutive days of inflows comparable in size to the recent withdrawals.
That bar has not yet been cleared, so we would still watch the flow tape closely even as price has already recovered.
Our recent look at the Bitcoin recovery after the midterms made the same point — early rebounds matter most when buyers keep showing up after the headline move.
What Do Analysts Say About Bitcoin’s Next Move?
Position trader Bob Loukas noted the constructive post-election bounce while flagging that Bitcoin still needs follow-through.
“A good move my Bitcoin today post election, but it will need a big push to get away from what appears to be an intermediate (weekly Cycle) decline that’s taken hold,” Loukas wrote.
We believe that read fits the tape: the reclaim of $80,000 and the short wipeout are encouraging, but holding the level and extending toward prior supply zones would strengthen the bullish case.
Before the breakout, Bitfinex described Bitcoin as trading inside a $77,000–$80,000 support band where buying had been largely passive.
Its analysis also identified about 2.26 million BTC acquired between $81,000 and $85,500, highlighting $84,000–$85,500 as an area where some holders could look to exit near breakeven.
That zone is potential overhead supply, not a ceiling written in stone.
Resting spot bids between $78,000 and $79,000 had also grown to about $42 million from roughly $24 million in mid-October, a sign that dip-buyers were already building a cushion beneath today’s move.
Could Bitcoin Push Through $84,000 Next?
For us, the key takeaway is that Bitcoin absorbed recent ETF selling, flushed overextended shorts, and reclaimed a psychologically important round number in the same window.
A return toward the $84,000–$85,500 supply band would require a further advance of roughly 4% to 6% from the $80,470 area, depending on the exact target.
We would look for three things to confirm that path:
- Spot Bitcoin ETF flows flipping back to multi-day inflows after the $1.16 billion outflow stretch.
- Price holding above $80,000 on declining sell volume rather than immediately fading.
- Broader risk appetite in equities and a calmer dollar backdrop that keeps crypto liquidity constructive.
None of those conditions need to appear overnight for the long-term thesis to remain intact.
Bitcoin’s fixed supply, deepening institutional infrastructure and expanding self-custody culture still form the foundation beneath short-term liquidation cascades.
The coming days will reveal whether $80,000 becomes a launchpad rather than a temporary reclaim — and if Bitcoin can grind into the mid-$80,000s, investors may begin looking beyond the post-election noise toward the next phase of the recovery.
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