Bitcoin continued its surge on Wednesday, shooting above $63,000 for the first time since November 2021.

The price of the flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by nearly 6% at $60,356.75, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it briefly touched $64,000 before turning lower. It’s just below its all-time high of $68,982.20.

Both bulls and bears have been getting whipsawed by the sharp price movements. Over the past 24 hours, $176 million in short liquidations and $86.1 million in long liquidations occurred across centralized exchanges, according to CoinGlass.

When traders use leverage to short bitcoin and the cryptocurrency’s price rises, they buy bitcoin back from the market to close their positions, which pushes the price up and causes more positions to be liquidated. By contrast, traders betting on a price increase must sell their assets to cover their losses.

With the record in clear sight, the market has been even more motivated to see that level retested. Bitcoin has soared nearly 20% this week alone, after a week-long pause of this year’s rally. It’s now up more than 40% for 2024.

Antoni Trenchev, cofounder of crypto exchange Nexo, said to expect some resistance as bitcoin nears $69,000 but that breaking through $60,000 should whet the appetite of investors who have sat this year’s rally out – particularly retail investors. According to JPMorgan, their interest in crypto has rebounded this month after a pause in January.#TrendingTopic #BTC #Portal #ETH #Meme