$700m liquidated as Bitcoin touches $21k amid weekend pump

Bitcoin briefly surpassed $21,000 on Jan. 13 for the first time since the FTX saga started in early November. After a slight retracement early on Saturday morning, BTC is priced at $20,800 as of press time.

$255m of spot Bitcoin was bought on Jan.13, while the liquidation of $240 million Bitcoin shorts liquidated sent Bitcoin to a high of $21,300.

Across the broader crypto market, there were a total of $721 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to Coinglass data. In addition, a total of 132,021 traders were liquidated, with the most significant liquidation being a $6.84 million short bet against Bitcoin.

Interestingly, while there have been plenty of BTC purchases over the past day, the volume of Bitcoin leaving exchanges hit an early year-to-date high. Most exchange-purchased Bitcoin was withdrawn almost immediately as $255 million of Bitcoin moved into self-custody.

Most withdrawals were made in large installments of $1 million and above. Further, the biggest group was those withdrawing over $10 million of BTC, suggesting institutional action.

Bitcoin continued to leave exchanges overnight on Jan. 13 as the total value of Bitcoin held on exchanges dropped to just 2.24 million BTC.