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Ether led a broad cryptocurrency rebound on Friday as a fresh round of short liquidations forced bearish traders out of their positions, according to Bloomberg.
Ether climbed as much as 8.3% on Friday, a move not seen intraday since a spike three weeks earlier, while Bitcoin advanced less than 4%. Both tokens pulled back from their session highs. Coinglass data cited by Bloomberg showed that Ether short positions totaling more than $255 million were closed out in the preceding 24 hours, alongside $172 million in liquidated bearish wagers on Bitcoin during the same window. The pace of Ether liquidations picked up sharply in the most recent hour, with Coinglass data putting the total at approximately $188 million. Taken together, long and short positions across the broader crypto market amounted to roughly $500 million in liquidations over the prior 24-hour period.
The move had the hallmarks of a short squeeze. "Traders were paying to be short into an 8% rally," said Adam McCarthy, head of research at trading firm LO:TECH. "This exacerbated the move." On Binance, about $76 million in Ether positions were liquidated in the 24-hour period, with most of those being closed short positions, according to Bloomberg. In perpetual futures markets, Ether funding rates flipped negative — a sign that short sellers were being charged to maintain their exposure while counterparties on the long side collected the payments.
The rapidity of Friday's gains pointed to speculative mechanics as the primary driver rather than any meaningful influx of new buyers, Bloomberg reported. Traders had largely sat out since late August after a surge in Bitcoin triggered a wave of forced deleveraging. "The recent range-bound trading looks like consolidation with fading short-term momentum rather than a confirmed structural breakdown," Lacie Zhang, a research analyst at Bitget Wallet said.