Bitcoin Breaks Out to About $117K After Fed Hints at Rate Cut, Short Squeeze Fuels Rally
Bitcoin surged after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled a possible shift toward easing, delivering a sharp intraday rally that pushed the price through the $117,000 zone. The move quickly ate into resting sell-side liquidity above that level and sent spot BTC up from a recent low near $111,600 to roughly $117,300 on major venues.
The sudden upswing triggered a large cascade of forced position exits. Short positions were hardest hit, with hundreds of millions of dollars in shorts liquidated across the crypto market; Ether also posted a substantial short-squeeze as it climbed aggressively. When combining both long and short wiped-out positions, the event removed a significant chunk of leveraged exposure from derivative markets and forced many traders out of the market.
Data from derivatives monitoring services showed a dense band of ask orders between about $117,000 and $118,000, which the bounce cleared as buyers chased price higher. Across the episode, more than one hundred thousand traders were liquidated, reflecting how concentrated leverage and clustered stop zones can amplify rapid moves in both directions.
Several market technicians responded to the price action by saying the shorter-term downtrend had been invalidated. Analysts noted that the brief sweep below the prior low created a fresh buying opportunity, and some prominent commentators declared that the BTC uptrend had resumed. At least one cycle-focused model still points to a higher cycle top later in the year, while other industry voices flagged the potential for substantially higher price targets if macro and policy conditions remain supportive.
Commentary from institutional research and industry figures has ranged from cautious optimism to aggressive forecasts. One notable analyst suggested that recent regulatory and policy developments around retirement-plan access for crypto could boost demand and help drive Bitcoin toward much higher multi-hundred-thousand-dollar targets by year-end—though such projections depend on many variables and are far from certain.
This article is a market recap and not investment advice. Crypto markets remain volatile, and traders should conduct their own research and consider their risk tolerance before making investment decisions.
