DeFi

Bitcoin Surges Above $87,000 on ETF Inflows and Massive Short Squeeze

Published

2 months ago

September 22, 2026

On September 21 bitcoin ran from a weekly close near $81,159 through $85,000 — first print there since late January — and into the mid-$86,000s, with some boards tagging a reclaim of $87,000 and an intraday extreme near $87,354. Settlement and Tuesday morning stamps clustered in the mid-$85,000s to low $86,000s ($85,800–$86,500). That is a 6–8% cash session and more than $10,000 off the mid-month wash under $75,000. Market cap for the coin pushed toward $1.72 trillion. Total crypto cap prints ran toward $2.8–$2.9 trillion. Year-to-date bitcoin is no longer a double-digit hole; some cuts had it inside 2–3% of unchanged versus the January open near $87,575. The October 2025 high near $124,000–$126,000 is still a third away. This is an eight-month high, not a cycle high.

The squeeze did the violence. Spot did the hold.

CoinGlass-style boards put 24-hour liquidations in a wide but consistent band: $750 million to over $1 billion total, $648–$840 million of it shorts. One window: $739 million shorts versus $137 million longs. Bitcoin alone took $360–$536 million of short forced covers; ether another $145–$190 million. A single hour around the $84,000 break flushed $260 million-plus in shorts. Largest clips: about $11.3 million BTC-USDT on Binance, a larger Hyperliquid BTC print in a later cut. Glassnode had marked $83,000–$86,000 as the short cluster. Price walked through it in hours. Open interest rebuilt — bitcoin futures OI cited near $29 billion, close to May records — which is how a squeeze becomes the next squeeze’s fuel. Next obvious short pocket on one Hyperliquid map sat near $95,750. Downside long air still lives around $81,550.

ETFs flipped from apology to bid

Friday September 18 had already printed about $433 million of spot-bitcoin creations (FBTC ~$311 million, IBIT ~$108 million). Monday September 21 flow tallies diverge by vendor but not by sign: Farside was cited near $618 million; other aggregators put the session close to $999 million, with IBIT ~$381 million, ARKB ~$289 million, FBTC ~$239 million. Either number is the fattest 2026 day in that dataset. The prior week’s −$746 million Clarity/Fed bleed is no longer the live tape. Average ETF cost basis — $82,200–$85,600 depending on the desk — is back underwater-to-flat. That is the first stretch in months the wrapper book is not a forced seller on a downtick.

Macro stopped punching

Brent that had taught $107–$108 slipped toward $100–$102, WTI toward the high-$90s, a multi-day slide on talk of U.S.–Iran diplomacy and tanker flows. The 10-year yielded back under 5%. Equity futures were green into the U.S. open; KOSPI recaptured 7,000. Traders layered in a September 24 Trump–Xi meeting in Washington as a risk-on headline — trade plus a hoped-for Middle East sidebar. None of that repeals the Fed’s 3.75–4.00% hike or the 49–50 CLARITY fail. It does mean the market treated both as priced. Sell-the-rumor, buy-the-dot-plot is the charitable read. Crowded shorts plus an ETF bid is the mechanical one.

Alts tagged along, then some

Ether $2,720–$2,750, +5–6%. Solana $115–$116. XRP +7–8% toward $1.49–$1.52. Dogecoin prints ran +9–14% in the hot windows. That is beta, not a new narrative. AVAX had already done its NYSE-test squeeze. The tape was “risk on,” not “rotation with a thesis.”

What $87,000 is allowed to mean

Last week’s close above the 50-week moving average (~$78,800) was the trend stamp. Monday was the range expansion. Combined, bitcoin has reclaimed the August failed highs and the ETF average cost. It has not reclaimed October. Leverage that just got carried out is already being put back on. $86,000–$90,000 is the band desks will argue about until the next flow day. Hold it and the squeeze graduates to a trend. Lose $82,000 and Friday’s ETF print was a dead-cat with better branding.

Clarity still failed. The Fed still hiked. Oil can still reverse if Thursday’s summit is a photo. The market that printed $74,984 eight days ago printed $87,000 yesterday because shorts were wrong and creations showed up. That is a powerful session. It is not permission to forget how fast this tape unravels when the 10-year and Brent decide to remember they exist.

DeFi

Bitcoin Tests $75,200 Support

Published

1 day ago

November 10, 2026

Coin Reporter Correspondent

Total crypto market capitalization hovered near $2.50–2.54 trillion on November 9, 2026. Bitcoin dominance remained elevated at roughly 59–60%. The Fear & Greed Index stayed in “Fear” territory. The day featured sharp liquidations, persistent ETF outflows, and selective institutional and protocol developments amid ongoing caution.

Crypto markets remain under pressure after weekend liquidation cascade; Bitcoin closes at $75,223
Bitcoin and the broader crypto market recovered modestly from deep weekend lows on November 9 but closed with gains that did little to ease underlying uncertainty. BTC finished at $75,223.15 (market cap $1.513 trillion, +0.86% on the day) after testing the $73,500 area and the 200-day moving average. Ethereum closed at $2,131.50 (+0.50%). Total market value settled near $2.50–2.54 trillion after an earlier drop. Volume spiked as traders digested risk-off flows.

Key drivers included the prior week’s $1.28 billion in Bitcoin ETF outflows (the largest since June, heavily concentrated in BlackRock’s IBIT) and macro caution ahead of inflation data. Tech-sector nerves tied to an Nvidia leadership investigation added pressure earlier, though equities later rallied. Breadth was mixed: select Layer-2 and DeFi tokens (ARB, AVAX, AAVE) outperformed while XRP, ZEC, and several others lagged. Analysts noted that elevated liquidations cleared excess leverage, but sustained recovery remains dependent on ETF demand and liquidity conditions. Support near $73,000–73,500 remains pivotal.

Strategy buys another 1,036 Bitcoin for $81.9 million; holdings exceed 850,000 BTC
Michael Saylor’s Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) disclosed the purchase of 1,036 BTC between November 2 and November 8 at an average price of approximately $79,012 (including costs), totaling about $81.9 million. The acquisition brought total corporate Bitcoin reserves to 850,364 BTC. Strategy also repurchased $188.3 million of its STRC preferred shares during the same period, funded in part by equity issuance. The move reinforces Strategy’s aggressive treasury strategy amid broader market volatility and ETF outflows. Corporate Bitcoin accumulation continues to act as a counterweight to retail and institutional selling pressure. With holdings now exceeding 850,000 BTC, Strategy remains the largest corporate holder.

NYSE selects Avalanche as settlement layer for tokenized securities platform
Ava Labs announced that Avalanche will serve as the core settlement ledger for a forthcoming tokenized securities platform affiliated with the New York Stock Exchange. The venue is designed for continuous (24/7) trading and settlement of equities issued across multiple blockchains, subject to regulatory approvals. This marks a significant step in Wall Street’s blockchain integration, moving beyond simple token wrappers to native settlement infrastructure on a public chain. AVAX saw relative strength on the news. The development highlights growing institutional interest in tokenized real-world assets.

Coinbase receives final OCC approval for national trust bank charter
Coinbase announced completion of the approval process for Coinbase National Trust Company, granting it a federal national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The charter places Coinbase’s custody and related businesses under a federal regulatory framework, enhancing its ability to offer institutional custody, payments, and other services. The company has also expanded its partnership with PNC Bank for USDC settlement and conversion for corporate clients. This regulatory milestone strengthens Coinbase’s position in the institutional market.

North Korean actors launder Binance hack proceeds via self-minted NEAR meme coins
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic reported that North Korean-linked actors minted six NEAR-based meme tokens and routed approximately $430,000 of stolen Binance funds through associated liquidity pools. Similar techniques have appeared on other chains. The activity follows Binance’s disclosure of a major hack and underscores evolving laundering methods that blend stolen assets into seemingly organic trading activity.

Binance Bitcoin mining pool effectively shuts down after producing only one block in a week
Binance’s Bitcoin mining pool produced just a single block over the past week as its scheduled shutdown on November 10 approached. Once a significant contributor to network hashrate, the pool has largely disappeared from rankings. The closure reduces one source of centralized mining influence. Meanwhile, separate reports noted continued scrutiny of Binance following the recent hack, including leadership transitions and questions around hot-wallet practices.

Solana developers propose deprecating durable nonces after $270 million Drift hack
Solana developers introduced a draft proposal to deprecate the durable nonces transaction feature, which was exploited in a $270 million hack on the Drift protocol. The change aims to close a known attack vector while requiring updates to existing workflows that rely on the feature. The proposal reflects the network’s focus on post-incident hardening. Solana closed the day at $86.55 (+0.36%). Separately, tokenized stock trading venues on Solana continue to advance under regulatory exemptions.

Trump Media reports $409.7 million Q3 profit largely driven by Bitcoin and equity holdings
Trump Media and Technology Group posted a $409.7 million net income in the third quarter, swinging from a year-earlier loss. The profit was primarily attributable to gains on Bitcoin and equity holdings; core media operations remained unprofitable. The result underscores the growing role of crypto treasury strategies among public companies and the mark-to-market impact of Bitcoin price movements on corporate earnings.

Korean exchanges list Hyperliquid (HYPE); token shows relative resilience
Upbit and Bithumb announced listings of Hyperliquid (HYPE) for KRW, BTC, and USDT pairs on November 10. The token closed November 9 at $75.03 (+1.00%), outperforming many majors in a soft market. Hyperliquid has attracted attention for its high-performance perpetual futures platform. The Korean listings expand access in one of the world’s most active retail crypto markets. HYPE’s market capitalization stood near $19 billion on the CMC snapshot.

These developments capture the dominant themes of November 9: leveraged cleanup and ETF-driven caution on the price side, offset by continued corporate accumulation, regulatory progress, institutional blockchain adoption, and protocol-level security responses. Prices cited are the official CoinMarketCap historical snapshot values for that date. Sources include CoinMarketCap historical data, CoinDesk, The Block, Decrypt, Elliptic reporting, and company filings. All figures are as reported for November 9, 2026. Prices remain volatile amid persistent uncertainty.