Bitcoin Blasts to $90K as Crypto Rally Shakes Out Leverage Traders

The crypto bull market shows no signs of stopping, with bitcoin (BTC) hitting another milestone by hitting the $90,000 level on crypto exchange Coinbase.

The largest crypto retraced around 5% to the low-$85,000 level earlier Tuesday, shaking out some late leveraged buyers. The pullback didn’t last long, though, with prices quickly rebounding and clinching new all-time highs towards the later hours of the U.S. session. BTC was up 3.7% over the past 24 hours, while the broad-market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index advanced 5%.

The wild price swings liquidated $940 million of leveraged derivatives trading positions across all digital assets over the past 24 hours, CoinGlass data shows, the largest amount since the August 5 market crash as unwinding Japanese yen carry trades that day brought BTC briefly below $50,000.

Crypto prices are melting upwards since Donald Trump’s decisive U.S. election victory last week as investors are piling into the asset class in anticipation of more crypto-friendly regulations, with cooling inflation, solid economic growth and global monetary easing providing additional tailwind for risk assets.

“More than retail investors, institutions are driven by government signals,” Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of digital asset custody provider Anchorage Digital, said in an emailed note. “The anticipation of a pro-crypto government next year is proving to be an institutional catalyst—the likes of which we have never seen.”