Crypto short traders lose $200M to liquidations as Ether hits a two-month high

• The cryptocurrency market capitalization has risen by about 3.18% in the past 24 hours.
• Ether has hit a two-month high trading at about $1400.
• The crypto market in general has risen against the cautious tone in the US stock market.

Crypto traders who had bet on a market decline have been caught off-guard by the broad recovery in the crypto market. As a result, about $200 million worth of short trades against price rises has been liquidated in the past 24 hours.

Another more than $150 million worth of short trades were also liquidated earlier this week as Ethereum (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) broke past key resistance levels according to data from CoinGlass. Other major altcoins like XRP and Solana also registered gains of about 20%.

Ether-tracked futures also saw liquidations worth about $110 million in both long and short positions. Bitcoin saw liquidations worth about $77 million, while AVAX and GALA saw $4.5 million in liquidations.

Ethereum’s strong performance

Despite the cautious tone around the US stock futures, Ethereum (ETH) has rallied to a two-month high, confirming that the crypto is well prepared for a recovery in 2023 if the bullish trend is sustained.

Ethereum’s bullish trend is further projected to gain momentum ahead of the scheduled March Shanghai upgrade, which is designed to de-risk staking by allowing people to withdraw ETH staked into the Beacon Chain. There was some Ether that ware locked/staked into the Beacon Chain in December 2020.

The Shanghai upgrade is expected to boost staking demand causing a decrease in the circulation supply of ether, which the law of demand and supply dictates would result in a rise in ETH prices.

According to Thielen, the upgrade:

“Will motivate many ETH holders to stake their ETH as only 14% of the ETH is being staked now, compared to 58% for other Layer 1 protocols. Hence, another $20 billion of ETH can be easily staked. More ETH staked means less ETH available to sell when negative news hits the market. Hence, this is bullish.”