Ethereum, Solana touch key levels as Bitcoin spikes

Bitcoin has climbed above $66,000, reaching its highest level since mid-June, when prices were trading above $67,000.

Bitcoin (BTC) price is currently up 4.7% in the last 24 hours as buyers hover around $66,670. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) has climbed above $3,500 and Solana (SOL) is trading above $170, with gains of 3% and 8% respectively.

Other altcoins are also trending positive, with BNB (BNB) up 4.9%, Dogecoin (DOGE) up 4.5%, and Cardano (ADA) up 3%.

Bitcoin soars amid global IT outage

The jump in Bitcoin’s price comes amid ongoing rumors about the benchmark cryptocurrency’s potential inclusion as a strategic national reserve for the United States.

Key to Bitcoin’s daily highs above $66,800 was a massive IT outage on Friday and the chaos that accompanied it, which grounded airline flights and forced banks, media and other global companies to shut down.

The outage occurred following a software update by cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike.

As widespread cyber outages highlighted Bitcoin’s strengths, the market appeared to be hinting at a new recovery. The space also witnessed a major increase in spot ETF volume.

Shorts suffer as Bitcoin price rises

Meanwhile, the surge in prices has wiped out short positions. For example, as of 2:24 PM ET on Friday, more than $6 million worth of BTC short positions had been liquidated in the last hour — compared to just $79,700 in long positions.

Data shows that in the past four hours, $12 million worth of bearish Bitcoin bets were liquidated, compared to approximately $1.6 million worth of long positions.

In the broader market, over $30 million worth of shorts were liquidated in the last four hours. This outpaces long liquidations by a large margin as only $5.3 million worth of long positions were liquidated during this period.

On Thursday, analysts at Santiment noted an increase in short positions in the bitcoin market, with the BTC price trading below $63,000. Liquidations increased as the BTC price climbed above $66,800.