Shorts Lose $440M as Bitcoin Nears $75,000 After Iran Signal

Bitcoin gained 5.7% to $74,679 over the past 24 hours, prompting roughly $540 million in liquidations across the crypto derivatives market and closing out 169,525 traders, according to CoinGlass data. Short positions accounted for about $440 million of the total losses.

CoinGlass reported that Bitcoin-denominated positions represented about $236 million of the liquidations, followed by Ethereum at $143 million, Rave at $35 million and Solana at $11.37 million. The largest single flagged liquidation was a BTC/USDT position on Aster valued at $12.4 million.

An institutional buyer identified as Strategy disclosed a $1 billion Bitcoin purchase executed between April 6 and April 12. The firm added 13,927 BTC to its holdings, bringing its total to 780,897 BTC, or about 3.7% of Bitcoin’s total supply. During the same period, Ethereum rose 9.4% to $2,388 and Solana increased 5.2% to $86.10.

Two developments coincided with the price rise. On Monday, President Donald Trump commented that Iran wants to make a deal “very badly,” after last weekend’s failed ceasefire talks. The institutional purchase was disclosed around the same time.

Liquidations happen when traders use borrowed funds to amplify positions and their margin falls below an exchange’s required level; exchanges then automatically close positions to limit further losses. Rapid price increases forced many leveraged positions to be closed.

CoinGlass data show long traders lost nearly $100 million while short positions accounted for roughly 81% of total liquidation losses. The figures reflect activity across multiple exchanges and instruments in the derivatives market.