Key Points
- Bitcoin (BTC) reached new all-time highs in various Asian and South American countries following a 7% daily increase.
- The cryptocurrency is also nearing its peak value in USD, with liquidations of short positions contributing to the rise.
Bitcoin has achieved record highs in several countries across Asia and South America. This follows a 7% rise in a single day, edging the cryptocurrency ever closer to its peak value in United States dollars.
Intraday and six-week highs of $71,650 were recorded for Bitcoin on May 21. This marked an increase of over 7% in the past 24 hours. The digital asset is now just 3.4% away from its highest ever USD value of $73,738, which was recorded on March 14.
New Peaks in Various Currencies
The significant movement in Bitcoin’s value has led to new highs against other fiat currencies. In Japan, the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of 11.2 million yen in early trading on May 21. This is the first time Bitcoin has been valued at over 11 million JPY, as the local currency has depreciated against the USD by 10% since the start of the year.
Bitcoin also reached a record high in Argentina, where it was valued at 63.8 million Argentine pesos (ARS) on May 21. This is slightly higher than the previous record set in mid-March. Argentina has been grappling with severe inflation, currently at 290%, and currency devaluation for several years.
In the Philippines, Bitcoin was briefly worth a record 4.18 million pesos (PHP) on May 21, surpassing mid-March highs. Other countries where Bitcoin prices have matched or nearly reached their mid-March peak prices include Britain, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Norway, India, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey.
Short Position Liquidations
Crypto analyst Willy Woo noted that a month’s worth of Bitcoin short position accumulation was recently liquidated. “One more layer to go in order to short-squeeze past all-time highs,” he added. Over the past 24 hours, 79,010 traders were liquidated with total crypto liquidations valued at $345 million. Of these, 78.5% were short positions.
Earlier this week, Markus Thielen, the head of research at 10x Research, predicted that a “breakthrough above $67,500 could potentially lead to new all-time highs.” Currently, Bitcoin is trading at $70,945, just $2,500 short of a new all-time high in USD.
