Bitcoin climbed to its highest level since Sept. 23 after buyers pushed through a concentration of sell orders near $85,000, briefly taking the cryptocurrency to $86,857 on Bitstamp. The move triggered more than $120 million in Bitcoin short liquidations over 24 hours, while traders faced another potential liquidation cluster above $87,000.
Buyers break through the $85,000 barrier
According to Cointelegraph, Bitcoin’s advance followed a shift in exchange order-book liquidity. Sell orders around $85,000 had helped keep the market within a relatively narrow range during the week, but that barrier was absorbed as buying momentum increased.
Glassnode said reduced ask liquidity above the market could allow Bitcoin’s price to move higher more quickly, after what it described as the removal of remaining sell orders. Earlier in the week, more than $30 million in sell orders had been identified around $85,700.
TradingView data showed BTC/USD reaching $86,857 on Bitstamp before retreating below $86,000. CoinGlass’s liquidation heatmap indicated a concentration of potential liquidations above $87,000, including a cluster above $87,300 after the initial breakout.
Liquidations occur when leveraged positions are forcibly closed because the market moves against them. In this case, the move higher put pressure on traders betting that Bitcoin would fall. Short liquidations for Bitcoin totaled $122 million during the 24 hours covered by the report, while liquidations across the broader cryptocurrency market reached $210 million.
ETF demand remains a key market signal
The area around $86,000 is also being watched because it represents the aggregate breakeven level for investors in US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. An ETF is a market-listed investment vehicle that provides exposure to an underlying asset; spot Bitcoin ETFs hold Bitcoin directly.
Glassnode said a sustained break higher, supported by stronger trading volume and renewed ETF inflows, would provide firmer evidence that Bitcoin’s broader uptrend had support. The analytics firm noted that daily ETF flows had cooled after Sept. 21, when inflows reached $999 million, their highest level in almost a year.
“ The funds are still buying, but at a small fraction of the pace of those two days,” Glassnode wrote in its newsletter, adding that a return to inflows near that level would be the clearest indication of renewed demand.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $102.7 million on Oct. 1, according to Farside Investors. BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, the largest fund, attracted $195 million, but outflows from several other products reduced the combined daily figure.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 09:14 on Oct. 3, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $84,646.46, down 1.81% over 24 hours but up 0.77% over seven days. Other tracked assets were also mixed: NEAR Protocol stood at $4.6719, down 5% in 24 hours and 4.31% over seven days; Telcoin was $0.001953, down 10.24% daily but up 20.85% weekly; and Walrus was $0.03411, down 1.07% daily and 7.33% over seven days.
The market figures indicate that Bitcoin had moved back below the reported intraday peak by the time of Moneyiar’s update, leaving the $87,000 area as the next level where leveraged positions and sell-side liquidity could influence trading.
