Bitcoin traded through $80,000 on Thursday for the first time since early June, reaching an intraday high near $80,808 before settling a little lower into Friday morning. The move lifted the total crypto market value above $2.7 trillion and caught leveraged traders leaning the wrong way.
About $409 million in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours, including roughly $280 million in shorts, across more than 89,000 accounts. Ether led the damage with about $106 million in short positions wiped out, and the single largest liquidation was a $12.4 million ETH/USDT position on Binance. It is the same mechanics we documented in the mid-August short squeeze, only at a higher base.
ETF demand is doing the heavy lifting
U.S. spot Bitcoin funds took in about $232 million in net new money on Wednesday alone, extending the run we tracked in last week's flows report. Ether products are sharing the bid: spot Ether ETFs collected about $697 million in the week to 21 August, their strongest week of 2026, as part of a combined $2.6 billion that entered U.S.-listed Bitcoin and Ether funds. Ether held near $2,500 on Friday and is up about 8% on the week, with traders watching the $2,550 area as the next test.
The macro backdrop is helping. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's decision to at least double buybacks of 10 to 30-year bonds, from $2 billion to $4 billion per operation, has fed a broader debasement trade that also pushed gold to a record. The dollar has softened into Friday's Jackson Hole keynote, where Fed Chair Kevin Warsh speaks at 10:00 a.m. Eastern. See what is at stake in the Warsh speech.
What traders watch next
Thursday's high near $80,800 is the first resistance, then the $81,000 zone where this week's rally stalled. On the downside, traders mark $78,000 as the level the breakout needs to hold. Funding rates have heated up again, which cut both ways in August: it powered the rally, and it made the liquidations worse. Solana gained more than 12% and XRP about 6% on Thursday, a sign the bid is broadening beyond the two majors.
For ordinary holders, the practical point is unchanged. Breakouts driven by leverage retrace quickly when the macro calendar delivers a surprise, and the September FOMC meeting on 15 and 16 September is the next big one. Position size matters more than the headline number.