Investing.com– moved higher on Thursday, extending a rebound from the prior session as a mix of bargain buying and positive cues from Wall Street helped spur a broader recovery in the battered cryptocurrency sector.
A mass liquidation of overcrowded short positions also played some part in Bitcoin’s recovery, as short bets on the crypto were caught off guard by its abrupt price jump.
Bitcoin climbed 1.3% to $67,859 by 09:31 ET (14:31 GMT), recouping most of this week’s losses.
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Bitcoin aided by dip buying, short squeeze
Bitcoin’s gains came as traders largely bought back into heavily discounted prices, with the world’s largest crypto still nursing a near 50% slide from its October record highs.
This in turn pressured heavily crowded short positions on the crypto, sparking a short squeeze. Data from crypto aggregator Coinglass showed $468.7 million in short positions being liquidated in the past 24 hours.
Sentiment towards Bitcoin had turned largely negative following a prolonged price decline in the crypto since October. Buy actions by major corporate holder Strategy also did little to quell concerns over a deeper price downturn.
Despite this week’s gains, sentiment towards crypto remained largely in the red. Coinmarketcap’s crypto fear and greed index remained largely unchanged at “extreme fear” as of Thursday.
Wall St gains stoke risk appetite, but Nvidia brings limited cheer
Buying in crypto was also encouraged by two days of strong gains on Wall Street, which helped improve risk appetite.
Wall Street indexes had advanced on a rebound in technology shares, ahead of closely watched earnings from Crypto prices tend to track U.S. tech shares.
The world’s most valuable company delivered bumper earnings and guidance on Wednesday evening, as it continued to benefit from outsized, artificial intelligence-fueled demand for its chips.
But Wall Street showed limited cheer over the earnings, with falling 0.2% in Asian trade. A bulk of Nvidia’s earnings appeared to be priced into tech valuations, while lingering concerns over the company’s high inventory levels and Chinese sales also weighed.
Bitcoin ETF inflows jump as institutional demand rebounds
U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs drew $506 million of net inflows on Wednesday, the strongest daily intake since the $561 million recorded on February 2, according to SoSoValue data. The pickup points to a renewed wave of institutional interest following a quieter stretch for the products.
“Bitcoin spot demand is growing for the first time since late November,” Julio Moreno, head of research at CryptoQuant, said in a post on X.com on Thursday.
accounted for the bulk of the inflows, bringing in $297.4 million. Six additional funds — including offerings from Fidelity and Grayscale — also posted net gains, while no ETF reported outflows during the session.
Crypto price today: altcoins extend rebound
Broader crypto prices largely extended their recent rebound, tracking gains in Bitcoin.
World no.2 crypto jumped about 5% to $2,070.49, while rose 1.4% to $1.43.
and gained 4% and 3.5%, respectively, while added 2.1%.
Among meme tokens, and $TRUMP edged marginally higher.
But despite this week’s gains, most altcoins, like Bitcoin, were still nursing deep losses in recent months.
(Ambar Warrick contributed to this report.)