Traders betting against bitcoin lost $504 million over 24 hours as it bounced from below $60,000, though a fresh Iran-Israel flare-up pulled prices back on Monday. Jun 8, 2026, 5:53 a.m. 2 min readMake preferred on Bitcoin's recovery from last week's lows has crushed the traders who bet against it.Short sellers, who profit when prices fall, lost $504 million over the 24 hours to Monday morning, the most in a single day since late April, according to CoinGlass. Bets on rising prices lost just $151 million by comparison.Total liquidations across crypto reached about $655 million and hit more than 104,000 traders. Bitcoin positions accounted for $315 million and ether for $201 million. The single biggest forced closure was a $12.3 million bitcoin futures position on the exchange OKX. A liquidation is when an exchange automatically closes a leveraged bet that has moved too far against the trader.The squeeze caps a volatile stretch for the world's largest cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell nearly 14% last week and briefly traded below $60,000, dragged down by Strategy's first bitcoin sale since 2022, the unwind in artificial-intelligence stocks and a record run of outflows from spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Many traders piled into shorts near the lows, then got caught when bitcoin rebounded to a high near $63,800 on Sunday, according to CoinDesk data.The bounce lost some steam on Monday. Renewed strikes between Iran and Israel sent oil up more than 3% and Asian stocks sharply lower, with South Korea's KOSPI falling almost 7%. President Donald Trump urged Israel not to retaliate further. Bitcoin slipped back to around $62,900, still well above last week's floor.Bitcoin reached as high as $63,700 on Monday morning before retreating, according to CoinDesk data, with volatility likely to stay high ahead of U.S. inflation figures and a wave of major IPOs including SpaceX.More For YouXRP recovered from four-month lows on elevated volume, but the token remains trapped below key resistance levels even as ETF inflows and exchange outflows continue to build.What to know: XRP has stabilized after a sharp sell-off, with buyers defending the $1.09 area but the token still trading within a broader downtrend.Heavy exchange outflows and steady ETF inflows suggest accumulation beneath the surface even as price action looks more like bottom-fishing than a new rally.Traders are watching support...Read full story