On December 17, Bitcoin experienced a brutal and chaotic two-hour period that caused prices to violently rise and fall in a short window.
The move started as a quick rally, then just as quickly turned into a sharp decline. Both sides of the market have been affected. Each step pushed Bitcoin to around $3,000 in either direction, underscoring how aggressive trading had become during the session.
Bull Theory reported the initial rise, noting that Bitcoin surged around $3,300 in just 30 minutes. This spike forced the liquidation of approximately $106 million in short positions.
BREAKING: Bitcoin generated $3,300 and liquidated $106 million in shorts in just 30 minutes.
But he then sold $3,400 and liquidated long positions worth $52 million over the next 45 minutes.
Insane level of manipulation in crypto. pic.twitter.com/5zrlnsIhgj
– Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) December 17, 2025
BREAKING: Bitcoin generated $3,300 and liquidated $106 million in shorts in just 30 minutes.According to the analyst, the speed and scale of the movement made it a classic shortcut.
But the strength didn’t last. Over the next 45 minutes, Bitcoin gave back almost all of these gains. Prices fell by around $3,400, triggering long liquidations of around $52 million.
Bull Theory described the reversal as a quick shift to a long squeeze, showing how quickly the sentiment reversed.
Other market observers have highlighted the same episode from different angles. DEGEN NEWS described Bitcoin as printing “two consecutive volatile hourly candles,” highlighting how unusual the consecutive fluctuations were.
ZeroHedge linked the move to its long-held “10 am slam algo” idea, calling it a nearly $5,000 swing in about an hour at the time of publication.
Both ZeroHedge and Bull Theory pointed out a trend that they believe appears around 10:00 a.m. EST. This timing corresponds to the opening of the American stock markets. And that’s where some of these sharp moves in Bitcoin tend to appear.
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Bitcoin Price Action and Liquidations
The latest wave of volatility has hit traders hard. Over the past 24 hours, more than 120,000 positions have been liquidated. Total losses amounted to nearly $400 million.
Most of this damage happened quickly. Over $340 million in liquidations took place in the last 12 hours alone. Of this amount, approximately $310 million was received in a single four-hour window.
This timing matches the rapid pump and dump reported by several analysts during the session.
Looking only at Bitcoin, liquidations reached around $108 million over four hours, based on data from CoinGlass. About $75 million of those losses came from short positions. Another $32 million came from long positions.
Ethereum saw liquidations of a similar magnitude during the same period. But the structure was different.
Most of the losses on ETH came from long positions, indicating a clearer squeeze in Ethereum markets.
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The article Bitcoin Price Prediction: Why Did BTC Trigger Consecutive Short and Long Squeezes in a Single Session? appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
