Short sellers lost $281M in 24 hours. Ether wiped more bearish bets than bitcoin, and that's the catch.
A weak jobs report lit the fuse. Whether Bitcoin ETF flows reverse is the only number that matters for the week ahead.
CryptoVibe Desk · short-squeeze · ethereum · bitcoin
- →Short sellers lost $281 million in 24 hours as crypto posted its best week since mid-June, with ether wiping $157 million in bearish bets against bitcoin's $103 million.
- →Weak June payroll data, just 57,000 jobs added and well below expectations, trimmed Federal Reserve rate-hike bets, weakened the dollar, and gave crypto markets a macro tailwind.
- →U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are still running through a record monthly outflow streak, which means the short squeeze has not yet converted into confirmed buying demand.
- short squeeze → When traders who bet that prices will fall are forced to buy back their positions as prices rise, which pushes prices even higher.
- liquidation → When a leveraged trading position loses too much money, the exchange automatically closes it to prevent further losses.
$281 million in short positions closed in 24 hours Thursday, per CoinDesk. Ether led the damage: $157 million in ETH bearish bets were wiped against bitcoin's $103 million. That's the unusual flip.
The single largest forced close was an $18.2 million ETH short on Hyperliquid. Total liquidations hit $440 million across 95,690 traders, per Coinglass data cited by CoinDesk.
The macro trigger is named. June payrolls came in at 57,000 jobs added, well below expectations, per Bloomberg. That trimmed Fed rate-hike bets and weakened the dollar. South Korea's Kospi climbed 3% on the same catalyst.
Bitcoin sat near $61,360 early Thursday, up 2.5% on the week. ETH was at roughly $1,702, up 9.7% for the week. Solana posted the biggest weekly gain among the majors at 18.6%, near $80.
The catch: U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs are still working through a record monthly outflow streak. If you're reading this squeeze as a trend reversal, that data says wait.
Hyperliquid's insurance fund balance is not public. Thursday's $18.2 million forced ETH close is exactly the event that makes that gap matter. Traders running large shorts on that venue are pricing counterparty risk they cannot see.
Whether U.S. spot bitcoin ETF flows turn net positive for the week ending July 11, which would confirm real buying replaced short-squeeze mechanics rather than just flushing overcrowded bearish positions.
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