Bitcoin Blasts to $90K as Crypto Rally Shakes Out $900M of Leveraged Bets

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The crypto bull market shows no signs of stopping, with bitcoin (BTC) reaching another milestone by hitting the $90,000 level on crypto exchange Coinbase.
The largest crypto retraced around 5% to the low-$85,000 level earlier Tuesday, shaking out some late leveraged buyers. The pullback didn’t last long, though, with prices quickly rebounding and clinching a new all-time high of $90,100 on Coinbase’s BTC-USD pair towards the later hours of the U.S. session before giving back some of the gains. The CoinDesk Bitcoin Index (XBX), which tracks pricing data from multiple exchanges, hit $89,971 as the price on Coinbase topped $90,000.
The $90,000 level could pose a significant barrier for bitcoin’s rise, at least for the short term. On popular crypto exchange Binance, order book data of the most liquid trading pair BTC-USDT showed mounting sell orders at the $90,000 level. Positioning on the options market also suggest that BTC’s rise may stall out in the $90,000-$100,000 range.
Indeed, within minutes of reaching the $90,000 level, prices reversed with bitcoin sinking to $88,500, still up 0.9% over the past 24 hours and outperforming the broader CoinDesk 20 Index, which was flat over the same time period.
Read more: Why Bitcoin’s Record Price Rally May Be Choked Between $90K and $100K?
Ethereum’s ether (ETH) and solana (SOL) slipped 2%-3%, while Ripple’s XRP (XRP), stellar lumens (XLM) and hedera (HBAR) outperformed, advancing 15%-18%.
The wild price swings liquidated $940 million of leveraged derivatives trading positions across all digital assets over the past 24 hours, CoinGlass data shows, the largest amount since the August 5 market crash as unwinding Japanese yen carry trades that day brought BTC briefly below $50,000.
Crypto prices are melting upwards since Donald Trump’s decisive U.S. election victory last week as investors are piling into the asset class in anticipation of more crypto-friendly regulations, with cooling inflation, solid economic growth and global monetary easing providing additional tailwind for risk assets.
“More than retail investors, institutions are driven by government signals,” Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder of digital asset custody provider Anchorage Digital, said in an emailed note. “The anticipation of a pro-crypto government next year is proving to be an institutional catalyst—the likes of which we have never seen.”
UPDATE (Nov. 12, 21:40 UTC): Adds Binance order book data, CoinDesk Bitcoin Index pricing. Updates prices.
Edited by Stephen Alpher.

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Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.
Krisztian Sandor is a reporter on the U.S. markets team focusing on stablecoins and institutional investment. He holds BTC and ETH.