Live updates: Bitcoin slumps below $82,000 as markets go risk off on AI selloff, oil surge

Bitcoin squeezed short sellers on its way to nearly $85,000 late Wednesday, then wiped out bullish bets on the way back down to about $81,800. That’s a $3,000 round trip in under a day, and it left bitcoin down about 2% over 24 hours. The damage shows up in liquidations, which are positions an exchange forcibly closes when a trader using borrowed money can’t cover their losses. About $431 million was liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Roughly $173 million of that hit short sellers during the climb, and over the past 12 hours bullish bets made up $210 million of the $222 million wiped out. The biggest single hit was an $11.8 million bitcoin long on Binance, closed near $83,500.

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