Why is crypto up today? BTC short squeeze, ETF inflows & more

Key Takeaways 

• The crypto market surged following BTC’s short squeeze to a new ATH of $112K. The upswing triggered whales to jump on ETH, lifting altcoins, but memecoins still posted more gains on average. 

On the 9th of July, Bitcoin [BTC] printed a new record high of $112,025 on the Bybit exchange, briefly lifting select altcoins, including Ethereum [ETH]. 

The upswing followed a spot BTC ETF daily inflow of $218.04 million, surpassing $50 billion in cumulative net inflows for the first time since its debut. 

BTC short squeeze lifts the market

In addition, the sharp move was triggered by a liquidation hunt for leveraged shorts that was built around $111.5K. Per BTC trader, Cryp Nuevo, 

“$111.5k liquidation target hit! When price consolidates, liquidation targets are very powerful. They tend to act as price magnets.”

The trader had previously marked out the level as a potential bullish target for a liquidity hunt. Bitwise’s Head of Alpha Strategies, Jeff Park, also shared the same thesis. 

In fact, BTC’s buying pressure spiked nearly $660 million in a single 1-minute candle, confirming an aggressive short squeeze also fueled the the bullish run. 

SUI, ETH lead the altcoin pump

Amongst the major L1 altcoins, Sui [SUI] and ETH led the market recovery with 9% and 6% respectively.

In particular, ETH’s jump to $2.8K, attracted 7 whales, including Abraxas Capital and SharpLink Gaming, buying a collective $358 million of ETH. 

Meanwhile, Solana [SOL] climbed 2.5% and nearly tagged $160, as Cardano [ADA] surged 4%. 

Some select tokens, like Hyperliquid [HYPE], Monero [XLM], Bittensor [TAO], and Hedera Hashgraph [HBAR], also posted 5%-6% during the day’s pump. 

From a sector-wise perspective, memecoin topped the charts with several gems like Popcat [POPCAT], Useless Coin [USELESS], and dogwifhat [WIF] posting double-digit gains. 

On average, the segment posted about 10% returns, double the gains seen in L2 and 5x the DeFi sector. 

When zoomed out on the weekly timeframe, memecoin still led the rally, followed by DeFi. In short, these were the fastest sectors during snap rallies and could offer traders better returns. 

The next week’s trade could hinge on the June inflation data set to be released on the 15th of July.

This would spur Fed rate cut expectations. According to crypto trading desk QCP Capital, the market was pricing a September Fed rate cut. 

The report highlighted,

“A July cut is all but priced out. September odds have slipped from 90% to 70%.”