Bitcoin (BTC) temporarily rose past $85,000 on Monday for the initial time since January, building upon its bounce-back from the previous week’s market drop while Asian and European stock markets rose.
Bitcoin had changed hands near $75,000 on September 15 prior to climbing back past $80,000 on Friday. Following an increase exceeding 5% in the past 24 hours, the leading digital asset currently sits less than 3% lower for the year, though it continues to trade roughly 32.5% underneath its October record high close to $126,000.
Out of the upwards of $750 million in crypto positions wiped out during the 24-hour window, statistics from CoinGlass indicated that $648.3 million represented short trades. Bitcoin positions represented $360.7 million of those liquidations, featuring the biggest individual liquidation ticket on the Binance BTCUSDT order book, amounting to $11.3 million.
Regarding top digital currencies, Ethereum (ETH) has advanced roughly 5.6% across the previous day to reach $2,717, whereas XRP (XRP) has climbed 7.8% to hit $1.49, and Solana (SOL) has increased 7.2% to trade at $115.75, based on data from The Block’s pricing section.
Oil drops, yet interest rate worries persist
Brent crude dropped roughly 1.5% on Monday, with Saudi Arabia anticipating that roughly half of its impaired East-West pipeline throughput will become operational again in a matter of days, as noted by Capital.com analyst Daniela Hathorn in a Monday market commentary. Petroleum shipments have rebounded from their August troughs, though the threat of future Houthi strikes against Saudi facilities persists, she explained.
Tech and chip equities spearheaded the upward movement across Asia, European indices started the session higher, and U.S. index futures similarly trend downward in positive territory. Hathorn mentioned that the decreased petroleum cost was boosting market participants’ willingness to take on risk. She additionally pointed to fresh optimism surrounding international talks during the current UN General Assembly, with Trump signaling an openness to converse with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
In the wake of the Federal Reserve implementing a quarter-point borrowing cost increase last week, Hathorn noted that traders assessed the probability of a subsequent hike in October at approximately 56%. The American two-year government bond yield hovers close to 4.75%.
In the interim, colleague Capital.com strategist Kyle Rodda likewise pointed to the Thursday White House summit involving President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping as an upcoming market driver.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-09-21-bitcoin-taps-85000-for-first-time-since-january-as-crypto-short-liquidations-surge-415905.
