Bitcoin Pushes Past $64,000 As Crypto Short Liquidations Near $140M

Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $64,000 after Monday’s Wall Street open as US stocks gave way to gold.

Key points:

• Bitcoin continues a rebound from Sunday’s weekly close, gaining 2% on Monday.
• Oil stays steady after US president Donald Trump threatens to bomb Oman over the Strait of Hormuz.
• Bitcoin funding rates hit 20-month highs of 0.022 last week, data reveals. 

Bitcoin inches up as US-Iran rhetoric spreads to Oman

Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD up by more than 2% on the day, rebounding from Sunday’s weekly close. 

BTC/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

US equities turned lower as an agreed 60-day ceasefire between the US and Iran was set to expire, with the S&P 500 index down 0.5% from Thursday’s all-time highs. 

S&P 500 one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Speaking to Fox News, Trump threatened Oman with military action amid an ongoing dispute over the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz oil route.

“If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s*** out of them,” he told the network.

Oil markets appeared unfazed by the tensions, with WTI crude flat at $82.35 per barrel at the time of writing.

Safe haven gold was more volatile, gaining just over 1% to start the week to reach a daily high of $4,427 per ounce. Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on a combination of retail and government interest fueling gold’s multiweek highs.

XAU/USD one-hour chart. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView

Data from investment research platform Bytetree tracking the 30-day change in inflows to gold-backed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) put the figure at nearly $12 billion through Aug. 13.

In a note on Monday quoted by Investing.com, Bank of America strategist Michael Hartnett wrote that long gold remained the trade, describing it as “still [sic] best hedge against dollar debasement, bond collapse, asset inflation, capitalist populism vs socialist populism politics of 2020s.”

Related: BTC price loses 200-week trend line as 2022 repeats: Five things to know in Bitcoin this week

Funding rates hit levels not seen since late 2024

In its latest Market Color bulletin published on Monday, trading company QCP Capital noted Bitcoin’s continued ability to weather macro tailwinds without a major breakdown from its current range.

“Rather than treating individual price levels as directional signals, the more useful observation is that BTC remains close to the lower end of its recent range. A sustained move outside that range would provide more information about market positioning than the relatively contained moves seen within it,” it wrote.

Earlier, Cointelegraph reported on expectations that a return to $61,000 would trigger an unwinding of BTC long positions, adding to downside BTC price momentum.

The latest data from CoinGlass showed liquidations remaining muted as BTC/USD returned toward $64,000, with 24-hour cross-crypto liquidations at $180 million.

Crypto liquidation history (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass

In a sign of long BTC becoming an increasingly crowded trade, derivatives market funding rates hit 20-month highs of 0.022 on Aug. 14, per data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant.

“The derivatives market sentiment is positive within the current BTC price range, indicating that most traders are taking long positions,” it commented on the readings.

CryptoQuant previously noted that futures trading volume on Binance was outweighing spot markets by almost eight times.

Bitcoin funding rates chart. Source: CryptoQuant