Squeeze Meets Treasury Buying

Bitcoin traded near $85,400 on Monday, up roughly 44% for the quarter and still about 32% below its October all-time high of $126,156. Bitcoin's push above $85,000 blends real institutional buying with forced short covering. One is capital returning with intent, the other is leveraged shorts being pushed out of the way.

Treasury Demand Returns: Strategy Resumes Buying After a Pause

Strategy ended a pause in its weekly Bitcoin purchases, adding 950 BTC for approximately $75.7 million at an average of $79,670 per coin, confirmed by the underlying 8-K filing pattern and corroborated across five independent outlets. That purchase follows a stretch in which the company skipped Bitcoin buying entirely to repurchase $176 million of its STRC preferred stock, confirmed in Strategy's own September 8 SEC filing.

• Holdings, confirmed: Strategy's total now stands near 846,000 BTC, acquired for roughly $63.81 billion at an average of $75,416 per coin.

• A second treasury data point: French treasury firm Capital B reportedly bought 376 BTC ($29 million) funded by a €28.7 million private placement, bringing its holdings to 3,521 BTC, per The Block's coverage.

• ETF flows turned positive: US spot Bitcoin ETFs took in about $433 million on September 18, led by Fidelity's FBTC at roughly $310.7 million, matching Farside and SoSoValue data across four independent sources.

Short Covering Drives the Break: Liquidations, Not Just Buyers

Roughly $648 million of the $746 million in 24-hour liquidations were short positions, including $159.9 million in a single hour, clearing the September 4 high of $82,284, confirmed to the decimal via CoinMarketCap and multiple corroborating outlets.

• Open interest rose, not fell: Open interest climbed 7.59% to $156 billion even as shorts were closed out, meaning traders replaced positions rather than walked away.

• Volume followed: 24-hour volume is up 39% to $224 billion.

• Positioning flipped: The taker long-short ratio moved above 53% in favor of buyers for the first time in weeks.

• A technical marker cleared: Bitcoin closed last week above its 50-week moving average for the first time in 45 weeks, a level Galaxy Research's Alex Thorn has identified as a historical dividing line between bear and bull markets, confirmed by Galaxy's own research note and three corroborating outlets.

Coinjuice Lens: Corporate Treasuries

Strategy's confirmed return to buying, alongside a second treasury data point from Capital B, keeps corporate accumulation in view as a structural demand source independent of retail sentiment. The pattern to watch across future editions is not any single week's purchase size but whether treasury buying resumes on dips or only chases strength; the former is closer to a floor.

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News Behind Today's Read

Continue the read: for the trend context behind this move, see the last three editions: Sept. 21 · Sept. 19 · Sept. 18

Market Snapshot

This article was developed with the support of artificial intelligence tools as part of Coinjuice's editorial process and reviewed by our editorial team before publication.