Bitcoin’s rally above $87,000 has triggered the strongest wave of bullish social sentiment since 2024, while almost $1 billion of fresh U.S. spot ETF inflows and a large short squeeze added fuel to the breakout.
BTC surged through levels that had capped the market for months on September 21 before trading around $85,200 early Tuesday. Bitcoin is now up roughly 10% over seven days, with 24-hour trading volume above $60 billion.
The breakout has rapidly changed crowd positioning. Social discussions predicting Bitcoin and crypto moving “higher” surged to their strongest relative level since 2024, Santiment’s social data showed, reversing the heavy bearish sentiment that accompanied last week’s pullback.
Bitcoin ETFs Absorb $999 Million in One Session
U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $999 million in net inflows on September 21, their strongest daily intake since October 2025.
BlackRock’s IBIT led with $381.4 million, followed by ARK 21Shares’ ARKB at $289.1 million and Fidelity’s FBTC at $238.8 million. At Bitcoin prices around $85,000, the total inflow was equivalent to roughly 11,750 BTC.
The result marks a sharp reversal from September 15 and 16, when the funds lost a combined $746.3 million. Positive flows resumed with $159.5 million on September 17 and $433 million on September 18 before accelerating on Monday.
Institutional demand had already been improving before the breakout, with broader crypto funds attracting $1.3 billion during the previous reporting week.
Corporate demand also returned. Strategy disclosed a $75.7 million Bitcoin purchase on Monday, adding 950 BTC at an average price of $79,670 and taking its treasury to 846,000 BTC.
Short Squeeze Accelerates the Breakout
ETF demand was only one part of the move. Roughly $648 million in bearish positions were liquidated over 24 hours as Bitcoin and major altcoins moved sharply higher.
Closing a leveraged short requires buying back the underlying exposure, creating additional demand as prices rise. Crypto trading volume simultaneously jumped about 39%, giving the move considerably more participation than a thin-market liquidation spike.
Bitcoin has seen the same mechanism earlier in this recovery. An August breakout produced a $3 billion short squeeze as BTC broke through successive resistance levels.
Open Interest Rebuilds After Shorts Are Wiped Out
Leverage did not fall after the latest liquidation wave. Market-wide open interest instead increased 7.6% to roughly $156 billion, indicating that new derivatives positions entered as older shorts were forced out.
Bitcoin open interest reached about $25.84 billion, while Ethereum climbed to $16.97 billion and Solana reached $2.97 billion. ETH open interest crossed $17 billion during Tuesday’s session for the first time since January, while more than $120 million in Ether shorts were liquidated during the advance.
Rising prices alongside expanding open interest show that leverage is returning rather than disappearing after the squeeze. Continued spot and ETF demand can support that positioning, but a growing derivatives base also increases the amount of capital exposed to forced liquidation if momentum reverses.
Bitcoin’s social backdrop has changed just as quickly. Bearish expectations dominated during last week’s decline, while the latest rally has pushed higher-price discussions to their strongest extreme in nearly two years. BTC reached above $87,000 during the breakout before settling back toward the mid-$85,000 range on September 22.
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