Bitcoin prices reached their highest level since January as cryptocurrency market watchers question whether this is the end of the “crypto winter” and the start of a “crypto spring.”
Bitcoin surged more than $4,000, or about 5 percent, to above $85,000 before the opening bell to kick off the trading week.
The digital token has not seen this price since Jan. 29.
The market’s leading cryptocurrency benchmark is still down almost 3 percent year to date and remains firmly below the record high of $126,000, set in October 2025, when it slipped into a bear market.
But bitcoin has recently been clawing back with a 7 percent weekly increase and a 35 percent rally over the past three months.
The Sept. 21 surge was driven in part by a short squeeze, meaning short sellers were forced to buy more bitcoin to cover their positions, which sent prices even higher.
Coinglass data show that $790 million of crypto positions were liquidated this weekend, and 87 percent of them were shorts. More specifically, bitcoin shorts accounted for approximately $438 million of the total shorts.
It is not only bitcoin that is registering sizable gains, says Julian Pineda, market analyst at Forex.com.
“Broadly spe...