Crypto short traders lose $200M to liquidations as Ether hits a two-month high

• The cryptocurrency market capitalization has risen by around 3.18% in the last 24 hours.
• Ether hit a two-month high at around $1,400.
• Crypto markets in general have risen against the cautious tone of the US stock market.

Crypto traders who had been betting on market declines were caught off guard by a broad recovery in the crypto markets. As a result, nearly $200 million worth of short-selling trades against price gains have been liquidated in the last 24 hours.

A short trade of over $150 million was also cleared earlier this week as Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) broke through key resistance levels. Data from CoinGlassOther major altcoins such as XRP and Solana also posted gains of around 20%.

Ether tracking futures also saw liquidations worth around $110 million in both long and short positions. Bitcoin has liquidated around $77 million while AVAX and GALA have liquidated his $4.5 million.

Ethereum Strong Performance

Despite the cautious tone surrounding US stock futures, Ethereum (ETH) has rebounded to a two-month high, confirming it is poised to recover in 2023 if the bullish trend persists.

Ethereum’s bullish trend is expected to gain even more momentum ahead of the Shanghai upgrade scheduled for March. This upgrade is designed to reduce the risk of staking by allowing people to withdraw ETH staked on the beacon chain. There was some Ether locked/staked on the beacon chain in December 2020.

The Shanghai upgrade is expected to boost staking demand and cause a decline in Ether’s circulating supply. This means that the law of supply and demand will result in an increase in ETH price.

According to Thielen, the upgrades are:

Only 14% of ETH is currently staked, compared to 58% for other Layer 1 protocols, motivating many ETH holders to stake their ETH. More ETH to bet means less ETH to sell when negative news hits the market, so this is bullish.