Bitcoin ( BTC ) traded above $70,000 on May 21 after relentless bidding produced snap BTC price upside.

Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 0 BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin buys fuel march past $69,000

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD attempting to hold its latest reclaimed ground around key psychological levels.

Bitcoin surprised into the previous daily close, with repeat lots of buy liquidity boosting the market to nearly $72,000.

Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 1 Source: Credible Crypto

In doing so, the largest cryptocurrency crushed short sellers, with $85 million in BTC shorts alone wiped in the 24 hours to the time of writing, per data from monitoring resource CoinGlass .

Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 2 Crypto liquidations (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

Commenting, statistician Willy Woo noted that bulls were tackling overhead resistance in place for a month or more.

“1 month of Bitcoin short position build up just got liquidated,” he told followers on X (formerly Twitter).

“One more layer to go in order to short squeeze past all time highs.”
Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 3 BTC/USDT liquidation heatmap for Binance. Source: Willy Woo/X

One bold prediction even saw $100,000 as the outcome after a breakout completed on weekly timeframes. 

Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 4 Source: alphaanalysis.io

Popular trader Skew suggested that the United States’ spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could have had a hand in the move, predicting “important days to come” in the run-up to the decision on the U.S. spot Ether ( ETH ) ETFs.

ETH/USD traded at near $3,700 on the day, up 18% in 24 hours and 25% over the week.

Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 5 ETH/USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Trader: "Not the conditions" for sustained BTC price gains

Updating followers while eyeing the new demand, popular trader and commentator Credible Crypto nonetheless stuck to a conservative outlook.

Related: ETFs buy 3X new BTC supply — 5 Things to know in Bitcoin this week

BTC price action, he reiterated, was at “major resistance” and faced a likely failure to overcome it — at least for the time being.

“No change to the plan- we are at major resistance atm with perp premium positive after a month and a half and funding the highest its been since- I clearly said these are not the conditions in which a move to the highs is conducive to the next major leg up imo,” he wrote in part of an X discussion.

CoinGlass showed $70,630 as the area of thickest bid liquidity below spot price at the time of writing.

Bitcoin liquidates $85M shorts as bull flag sparks $100K BTC price target image 6 BTC liquidation heatmap (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.