Bitcoin Touches $69,749 in Steepest Rally Since March as $1.1B Short Squeeze Hits Crypto

A massive wave of short liquidations combined with federal macroeconomic moves pushed Bitcoin to an intraday peak of $69,749 on Wednesday, marking an 8.7% single-day advance. The surge broke past $69,000 to reach the cryptocurrency’s highest price since June 1 and its sharpest one-day rally since March 4. The movement ended a five-month absence of major single-day gains for crypto traders.

Market chart patterns and derivative sentiment platforms now present contrasting readings on where the asset trades next. Just 24 hours prior, participants on Myriad—a prediction venue operated by Decrypt’s parent company—heavily favored further downside for Bitcoin. Rapid repricing has since transformed those market expectations into an even split.

Myriad: Where does Bitcoin price go next? Click to make your prediction.

The abrupt turn demonstrates how rapidly leveraged position unwinds can reshape short-term market sentiment.

Catalysts behind the advance originated outside crypto-native channels. The U.S. Treasury announced Wednesday it will double its long-dated bond buybacks from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation starting September 9, pulling long-end Treasury yields down and pressing the dollar lower. Such macroeconomic steps ease broader financial conditions—lower yields diminish the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets like Bitcoin, while a declining dollar makes dollar-denominated assets less expensive for international purchasers, producing a mechanism market analysts label “QE Lite.”

Government bond repurchases effectively inject liquidity directly into banking channels by exchanging illiquid long-term debt for immediate cash balances on institutional books. When yields decrease as a consequence, capital traditionally seeking risk-free interest income frequently flows into alternative risk assets, bolstering valuations across equity and digital asset markets alike.

Market timing coincided with a White House meeting between digital asset executives and regulators, as well as a new SEC proposal aimed at simplifying registration guidelines for designated digital-asset offerings. The alignment of regulatory discussions and monetary easing accelerated bullish momentum, pushing prices rapidly higher.

Data from liquidation tracker CoinGlass showed $1.14 billion in crypto short positions wiped out in a single hour, with Bitcoin positions accounting for $677.64 million of that total. Crypto-adjacent equities advanced alongside the crypto squeeze, with Strategy jumping nearly 12%, Coinbase gaining 9%, and both Circle and BitMine trading up approximately 9-10% on Wednesday.

Predictors scramble to catch up

The speed of the move caught prediction markets unadjusted. Myriad’s “BTC next move” contract—which pits a rally to $84,000 against a drop to $55,000—showed traders heavily favored a decline to $55,000 with nearly 70% probability just days prior.

By Wednesday afternoon, those probability odds collapsed to a virtual coin flip: 51.9% favoring $55K and 48.1% favoring $84K.

The repricing extended beyond Myriad. Polymarket’s primary 2026 Bitcoin market priced a 56% chance of Bitcoin touching $55,000 before year-end and only a 51% chance of reaching $75,000 as of last week.

Traders on Kalshi maintained an even more cautious posture, assigning a 54% probability to Bitcoin clearing $67,500 in August and a 31% chance of touching $70,000—both levels that Bitcoin surpassed during Wednesday’s trading.

The divergence across timeframes highlights market dynamics. Short-term prediction traders were caught flat-footed by an unpriced 7% daily move, whereas longer-dated year-end contracts remained relatively steady. As prediction venues achieve record volume from market participants hedging underlying positions, the shift in Myriad odds functions primarily as a footprint of the short squeeze rather than a fundamental shift in long-term sentiment.

Failure to hold support above $68,000 risks pulling Bitcoin back inside the range that has confined price action since June, even as technical analysts watch resistance at $70,284, where a daily close could pave the way toward $73,245.