Bitcoin Nears $87K as ETF Inflows Fuel $558M Crypto Short Squeeze

The cryptocurrency market approached the $3 trillion capitalization mark on Tuesday after a sharp Bitcoin rally triggered hundreds of millions of dollars in liquidations and attracted heavy institutional inflows.

Bitcoin surged toward $87,400 during the move, forcing traders to close roughly $557.79 million in leveraged positions, according to CoinGlass data cited in the original report. Short positions represented about 70% of liquidations, led by $242.47 million in BTC perpetual contracts and $100.83 million in Ethereum perpetuals.

Institutional demand provided additional momentum. Spot crypto ETFs recorded more than $1.9 billion in net inflows over 24 hours, according to SoSoValue figures cited in the report. Bitcoin products attracted $1.36 billion, while Solana received $257.25 million, Ethereum drew $223.51 million and XRP added $45.54 million. Hyperliquid's HYPE token also reached a record high near $96.

Bitcoin later stabilized around the mid-$85,000 range as traders assessed a temporary USDe liquidity squeeze on Binance that briefly pushed the stablecoin to $0.92.

Meanwhile, Binance is restructuring parts of its trading market by removing 19 low-liquidity spot and margin pairs. Seven USDC spot pairs involving AIXBT, DOLO, ENJ, HUMA, SXT, TNSR and TURTLE are scheduled to stop trading on September 25 at 03:00 UTC.

Another 12 cross-margin and isolated-margin pairs involving MANTA, BANANA, SSV, NOM, STO, 1MBABYDOGE and OPN will be removed three hours later. New isolated-margin borrowing will be suspended from September 23, with remaining positions subject to automatic settlement.

The report also cited an SEC filing showing Binance purchased 1,237,011 Circle Class A shares for $100 million, alongside a five-year commercial agreement.

The affected cryptocurrencies are not being delisted entirely and will remain tradable through other available pairs, including USDT, FDUSD and BTC. Traders using margin accounts or automated bots should close affected positions before Binance's deadlines to avoid forced settlement.