Bitcoin Surges Past $22k Triggering Another $250 Million in Liquidations

Bitcoin is continuing its weekly rally with a push beyond $22,000, bringing the crypto market back to a market cap of over $1 trillion. 

The pump has triggered another avalanche of liquidations across digital asset exchanges.

Bitcoin traded for roughly $21,380 at 19:45 UST on Friday, before pumping by $1000 to $22,370 by 21:00. The pump has only continued since then, with the top asset going for $22,615 at writing time. 
Meanwhile, Ether has pumped from  $1590 to $1651 within that time frame. The last time either asset traded at these levels was prior to Ethereum’s merge and FTX’s collapse respectively, both of which sparked massive crypto market downturns when they arrived. 
According to Coinglass, the price pump has contributed to $250 million in crypto liquidations in the past 24 hours, including over 52,000 traders. 
The largest liquidation happened over Bitmex on an XBTUSD trade for $3.15 million. Overall, OKX is the leading exchange by liquidation count. 
Bitcoin has been rallying since last week after the BLS published optimistic inflation data, signaling to markets that the Fed may be prepared to stop hiking interest rates. Former BitMex CEO Arthur Hayes, however, believes a pivot is unlikely to happen so soon.