Bitcoin retreats from eight-month high after dizzying 13% rally

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Bitcoin prices retreat after a sharp rally, as investors weigh renewed market optimism against lingering macroeconomic headwinds.

The original cryptocurrency eased to around $85,500 in early Singapore trading from as high as $87,381 in the US session, still up around $10,000 from last week’s lows after crypto joined a broad rebound in risk assets including stocks. Bitcoin is back at late-January levels but remains well below its record of $126,000 set in October.

“The rapid move back through $80,000 has traders believing the bear phase is over; momentum is bringing sidelined capital back in, so the path of least resistance is higher,” said Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of crypto market maker GSR. “The risk is that this is a macro liquidity trade wearing a crypto costume. If so, a risk-assets wobble would put Bitcoin under significant pressure.”

Falling oil prices and optimism ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping have buoyed markets more broadly.

Liquidations of long and short positions across digital assets have climbed to more than $1 billion over the last 24 hours, with short bets accounting for about $840 million of that, according to data compiled by Coinglass.

“It looks like mechanics before conviction. Bitcoin cleared the top of its September range into a dense band of short liquidation levels, and forced buying did the rest,” said Rachael Lucas, an analyst at BTC Markets. “$84,000 is the level that matters. It was the breakout, and it should now hold as the floor if this is a regime change rather than a short squeeze.”

Bitcoin open interest on the options trading platform Deribit was heavily dominated by calls, signaling bullish sentiment. The platform showed nearly 320,000 contracts for the right to buy the token compared with over 169,000 for puts, or the right to sell.

Other positives lifting sentiment around Bitcoin are big inflows into spot US exchange-traded funds at the end of last week and Michael Saylor’s Strategy Inc. — the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin — purchasing the token for the first time in three weeks.

Still, headwinds remain, with crude oil at around $100 a barrel and US Treasury yields elevated, though falling.

Bitcoin is still off its 2026 high of over $97,000 in mid-January, and retail enthusiasm has proven hard to rekindle as artificial intelligence stocks and other AI-linked trades compete for the same pool of speculative capital.

“For most of this year crypto was the forgotten macro trade, it lagged equities and gold while capital and attention moved to AI,” said Rosenblum. “What’s changed is positioning, not fundamentals: Bitcoin was under-owned and leaning short.”