Iran Deal Hopes Send Bitcoin to $75K as 177K Traders Get Rekt in $530M Short Squeeze

Bitcoin surged to its highest price in nearly a month, triggering hundreds of millions in liquidations as hopes of a US-Iran deal washed the crypto market with positive sentiment. Nothing says "peace in the Middle East" quite like degen leverage getting absolutely demolished in a short squeeze—truly the universal language of markets.

The crypto market climbed to $2.6 trillion—its highest level in a month—liquidating 177,000 traders to the tune of $530 million over 24 hours, per CoinGlass data. Most of the carnage happened in the past 12 hours, with 80% ($425 million) coming from leveraged short positions in Bitcoin and Ether. That's right, 177K souls decided to fight the tape, and the tape won decisively. The grim reaper of stop-losses collected another fat harvest.

Bitcoin tapped a four-week high just below $75,000 on Coinbase late Tuesday before retreating to $74,290 at writing time. Ether put in a beefier performance with a 7.5% daily gain to $2,380—its highest since early February. Meanwhile, ETH holders are finally allowed to touch grass again after months of watching BTC hog all the spotlight.