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Bitcoin briefly hits $93,000 as crypto market extends new year rally with $260 million in liquidations

2026/01/05 12:45
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Bitcoin briefly hits $93,000 as crypto market extends new year rally with $260 million in liquidations

The rally in crypto was mirrored by a surge in commodities and Asian equities, driven by AI-led momentum and geopolitical developments.

By Shaurya Malwa
Updated Jan 5, 2026, 5:02 a.m. Published Jan 5, 2026, 4:45 a.m.

What to know:

  • Bitcoin briefly reached $93,000 as traders embraced risk following the U.S. ousting of Venezuela.
  • Major cryptocurrencies experienced gains, with XRP and Solana rising, while Dogecoin led with a 17% weekly increase.
  • The rally in crypto was mirrored by a surge in commodities and Asian equities, driven by AI-led momentum and geopolitical developments.

Bitcoin BTC$92,500.57 briefly touched $93,000 on Monday as traders leaned into a fresh risk bid across markets following a U.S. ousting of Venezuela, while year-opening flows pushed major tokens higher after a choppy finish to 2025.

BTC traded up about 1% over 24 hours and roughly 3% over seven days, while ether ETH$3,141.59 held near $3,160, also higher on the day. XRP$2.0742 added around 3% to above $2.10, extending its early January outperformance, while solana SOL$134.08 hovered near $136. DOGE$0.1515 eased on the day but remained up 17% over the past week, the highest gains among majors.

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Derivatives positioning amplified the move. Liquidations crossed $260 million over 24 hours, with shorts accounting for about $200 million, showing late sellers were forced to cover as prices pushed higher.

More than $121 million in short positions were wiped out in the past four hours alone, compared with less than $9 million in longs. Long liquidations remained comparatively modest throughout, pointing to a market where bearish leverage was crowded and vulnerable. On leading decentralized perpetual-focused platform Hyperliquid, shorts still accounted for roughly 54.4% of all liquidated positions versus 45.6% longs, according to HyperDash.

The BTC rally came alongside strength in risk assets and another surge in commodities. Asian equities climbed to a record as investors piled into technology shares, extending last year’s AI-led momentum. Brent crude steadied after early weakness tied to the Venezuela developments, while gold jumped sharply back above $4,400 an ounce and silver posted an even larger move.

Traders said the start-of-year bid reflects a mix of positioning and relative value, with crypto still far below its peaks while other assets sit near records.

“We believe that in the new year, traders are jumping in to exploit price inefficiencies,” Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at BTSE, said in a Telegram message, noting cryptocurrencies remain well off their all-time highs as equities and precious metals keep printing new records.

A move in markets began over the weekend as the U.S. took Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro was into custody, with Donald Trump signaling a

He also suggested U.S. troops on the ground would not be necessary as long as acting Venezuelan president Delcy Rodríguez “does what we want.”

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Pulling public figures, he finds CoinMarketCap showing roughly 59.6 billion XRP as circulating, while XRPScan reports about 64.7 billion. The divergence prompts what becomes the video’s key methodological point: different sources count “circulating” differently. Related Reading: Analyst Sounds Major XRP Warning: Last Chance To Get In As Accumulation Balloons As he explains it, the higher on-ledger number likely includes balances that aggregators exclude or treat as restricted, most notably Ripple’s programmatic escrow. He highlights that Ripple still “holds a chunk of XRP in escrow, about 35.3 billion XRP locked up across multiple wallets, with a nominal schedule of up to 1 billion released per month and unused portions commonly re-escrowed. Those coins exist and are accounted for on-ledger, but “they aren’t actually sitting on exchanges” and are not immediately available to buyers. 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