One of the biggest short squeezes of 2026 came and passed in a single session.
Bitcoin rose to $78,000 on Friday night, triggering $762 million in liquidations among 168,336 traders, of which $593 million were shorted, according to CoinGlass.
By Saturday afternoon in Asia, bitcoin had retreated to $76,091, up just 0.8% on the day, when Iran broadcast that the Strait of Hormuz was again closed to maritime traffic less than 24 hours after its foreign minister declared it fully open.
Two tanker owners told Bloomberg that their vessels received Iranian radio transmissions closing the waterway, and one supertanker reported gunshots and aborted transit.
The state-run Nour news agency said Hormuz had returned to “strict management and control by the armed forces” in response to the US blockade of Iranian shipping. Several tankers that had rushed into the strait on Friday upon initial news of the reopening returned.
Friday’s big rally ended in a short squeeze of $590 million, with bets on bitcoin accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the lion’s share, followed by ether short selling at $167. Shorts outnumbered longs by nearly four to one, the clearest collapse in a liquidation event since February.
The setup had been building for weeks. Bitcoin perpetual asset funding rates remained negative, meaning shorts were paying longs a premium to maintain their positions.
The reopening of Hormuz on Friday was the catalyst that changed the situation. Crude oil fell nearly 10% to $85.90 per barrel in the initial headline, and bitcoin broke through the $76,000 to $78,000 zone that has capped all recovery attempts since the Feb. 5 crash.
President Donald Trump then told reporters Friday night that Iran had agreed to an “unlimited” suspension of its nuclear program, although Tehran never confirmed the claim.
None of that survived intact until Saturday.
The market pattern is now familiar: Ceasefire headlines fuel a rally, but a reversal headline arrives before the breakout can consolidate. Forced relaxation creates another setup to work against.
Ether held up better than bitcoin on the pullback, down just 0.2% in 24 hours, while solana fell 1.3% and dogecoin fell 2.1%. On a weekly basis, ether is still up 5.2%, XRP leads with 6.4%, BNB added 4.6% and bitcoin stands at 4.5%.
Now the question is whether the $76,000 area will hold until Monday’s open. A clean weekly close above $76,000 would preserve the structural break even if the peace trade continues to oscillate.
One level loss and Bitcoin is back in the same range it has been stuck in since March, only this time with the short base that was just cleared looking to rebuild.
