Bitcoin’s nearly $12 billion open interest shakeout earlier this month might be just the catalyst needed for the asset to regain its upward momentum, according to a crypto analyst.

“This can be considered as a natural market reset, an essential phase for sustaining a bullish continuation,” CryptoQuant contributor DarkFost said in a March 17 markets report.

“Looking at historical trends, each past deleveraging like this has provided good opportunities for the short to medium term,” the analyst said.

CoinGlass data shows that on Feb. 20, Bitcoin’s (BTC) open interest (OI) — a metric tracking the total number of unsettled Bitcoin derivative contracts such as options and futures — stood at $61.42 billion before dropping 19% to $49.71 billion by March 4. 

Bitcoin’s open interest is sitting at $49.02 billion at the time of publication. Source: CoinGlass

It came amid volatile price swings due to uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs and the future of US interest rates.

“Following the recent panic triggered by political instability linked to Trump’s decisions, we witnessed a massive liquidation of leveraged positions on Bitcoin,” DarkFost said.

Bitcoin’s price fell below two crucial price levels during the two-week period, bringing it closer to the levels seen in the days after Trump’s election win in November.

Feb. 25 saw Bitcoin’s price retrace below $90,000, and just two days later, on Feb. 27, Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 for the first time since November. It’s now trading at $83,400, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin is down 14.58% over the past 30 days. Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitget chief analyst Ryan Lee recently told Cointelegraph that with Bitcoin hovering in the low $80,000s, its price and OI could see more volatility if the March 19 Federal Open Market Committee meeting delivers any surprises.

“The market largely expects the Fed to hold rates steady, but any unexpected hawkish signals could put pressure on Bitcoin and other risk assets,” he added. 

Related: Bitcoin experiencing ‘shakeout,’ not end of 4-year cycle: Analysts

Markets are currently pricing in a 99% chance that the Fed will keep interest rates steady, according to the latest estimates of the CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin OI is sitting at $49.02 billion, representing an approximate 6.5% increase over the past five days.

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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.

Crypto whale tracking on the Hyperliquid blockchain has enabled traders to target whales with prominent leveraged positions in a “democratized” attempt to liquidate them, according to the head of 10x Research.

Hyperliquid, a blockchain network specializing in trading, allows traders to publicly observe what type of positions a whale is holding, and since these positions are leveraged, the market can assess the liquidation levels unless an additional margin is added, Markus Thielen said in a March 17 report.

Source: 10x Research

“This transparency opens the door for coordinated efforts, where groups of traders could intentionally target these stop levels to trigger liquidations,” he said. 

It’s a common belief in the crypto market that whales with substantial holdings can influence the market through their trading tactics, such as stop-loss hunting, to deliberately trigger other traders’ stop-loss orders and liquidate their positions. 

Thielen says the recent actions from traders show this balance of power could be shifting.

“In effect, stop-hunting is being ‘democratized,’ with ad-hoc groups now playing a role once reserved mainly for market-making desks, or treasury teams, at exchanges before tighter regulatory scrutiny,” Thielen added. 

Thielen told Cointelegraph that it’s still “unclear if this type of activity will become widespread onchain, but as always, transparency can cut both ways.” 

Why are traders trying to liquidate whales?

This isn’t the first time smaller traders have attempted to take down larger entities through coordinated trading tactics. 

Thielen says crypto traders trying to liquidate whales have echoes of the GameStop short squeeze, which saw small traders flip the table on Wall Street short-sellers by buying GameStop’s stock, sending it to all-time highs of over $81 to liquid their positions. 

“This reminds me of the dynamics we saw during the GameStop saga in 2020/2021, where aggressive short squeezes drove rapid price spikes,” he said. 

Related: Bybit CEO on ‘brutal’ $4M Hyperliquid loss: Lower leverage as positions grow

“When stop levels get triggered, prices often accelerate in that direction, providing liquidity for others to cover. We’ve seen similar tactics from market makers and exchanges in the crypto space over the years.” 

Hunt is still on for 40x leveraged Bitcoin short-seller

On March 16, a crypto whale known for placing large, highly leveraged positions on Hyperliquid opened a 40x leveraged short position at $84,043 for over 4,442 Bitcoin (BTC), worth over $368 million on March 16, facing liquidation if Bitcoin’s price surpassed $85,592.

The move didn’t go unnoticed, and pseudonymous trader CBB sent out the call on X to gather a team of traders with enough funds to liquidate the whale’s position. 

Source: CBB

Thielen said in the 10x report that on March 16, Bitcoin surged by 2.5% within minutes, partly because of a coordinated effort to liquidate a whale’s short position on Bitcoin perpetual via Hyperliquid.

The whale has since increased their position to $524 million, and at one point, the whale hunters nearly got their wish when the price of Bitcoin hit $84,583.84, according to CoinGecko. 

Source: CRG

However, some speculate the exposed short position could be intentional. 

Hedge fund trader Josh Man said in a March 17 post to X that the whale might be purposefully trying to get liquidated. 

“So this there is a fairly rare and not widely used technique of self-liquidation and this FEELS a little like that,” he said. 

“In such events, the seller is actually creating a bomb designed to go off and create a rally from the liquidation of his own short. One would expect that he has a large offsetting long versus short.” 

Source: Josh Man

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission could change or scrap a rule proposed under the Biden administration that would tighten crypto custody standards for investment advisers, according to the agency’s acting chair, Mark Uyeda.

In prepared remarks to an investment industry conference in San Diego on March 17, Uyeda said the rule proposed in February 2023 had seen commenters express “significant concern” over its “broad scope.”

“Given such concern, there may be significant challenges to proceeding with the original proposal. As such, I have asked the SEC staff to work closely with the crypto task force to consider appropriate alternatives, including its withdrawal,” Uyeda said.

The rule was floated under the Biden administration during Gary Gensler’s tenure leading the regulator. It aimed to expand custody rules for investment advisers to any and all assets held for a client, including crypto, and upped the requirements to protect them.

Source: SEC

This meant that investment advisers would have to custody their clients’ crypto with a qualified custodian. Gensler said at the time that investment advisers “cannot rely on” crypto platforms as qualified custodians due to how they operate.

The proposal caused friction with Uyeda and Commissioner Hester Peirce, along with industry advocacy bodies who claimed the rule was unlawful and dangerous.

“How could an adviser seeking to comply with this rule possibly invest client funds in crypto assets after reading this release?” Uyeda remarked at the time. He did, however, support the proposal despite disagreeing “with a number of provisions.” 

Peirce, who was the sole commissioner of the five to vote against the rule, said at the time that the proposed rule “would expand the reach of the custody requirements to crypto assets while likely shrinking the ranks of qualified crypto custodians.”

Related: Congress repealed the IRS broker rule, but can it regulate DeFi? 

Uyeda’s latest remarks come days after he said on March 10 that he had asked SEC staff “for options on abandoning” part of a proposal pushing for some crypto firms to register with the regulator as exchanges.

The Trump-era SEC has also killed a rule that asked financial firms holding crypto to record them as liabilities on their balance sheets, called SAB 121.

In December, President Donald Trump picked former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins to take over from Uyeda to chair the agency. This is now a step closer, with a Senate hearing reportedly slated for March 27.

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