Bitcoin’s price shook off last week’s dip and climbed sharply on Tuesday morning in Asia, topping $110,000 briefly before settling around $109,450. Traders rushed back in after the asset dipped close to $100,000, feeding a sharp rebound that leaves Bitcoin just 2.8% shy of its record high.

A blend of forced liquidations, surging derivatives volume, easing US–China trade tensions and steady on-chain withdrawals is driving the move.

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Heavy Liquidations Shift The Balance

According to Coinglass, nearly $203 million in Bitcoin positions were wiped out over the past 24 hours. Of that, $195 million were against shorts. When so many short bets unwind at once, it forces buyers to cover positions, which can send prices spiking. Yet history shows these “short squeezes” can reverse quickly when traders take profits.

Based on reports, Bitcoin’s derivatives volume more than doubled, climbing over 110% to $110 billion. Open interest then followed suit, expanding 7.3% to almost $77 billion.

These kinds of inflows indicate that new money is accumulating. Both open interest and volume rising tends to indicate enthusiasm—and a willingness to carry through positions with swings.

Trade Diplomacy Lifts Risk Assets

Talks resumed in London on June 9 between the US and China over tariffs and export rules. Even a hint of progress tends to boost appetite for riskier assets, and Bitcoin isn’t immune.

Headlines of smoother trade ties lifted equities earlier this week—and crypto traders moved in tandem. If negotiations hit a snag, though, Bitcoin could slide with global markets.

On-Chain Data Shows Steady Accumulation

CryptoQuant’s numbers reveal that centralized exchanges have shed 550,000 BTC since July 2024, falling from 1.55 million to about 1.01 million today. As coins leave exchanges, float tightens. At the same time, the Coinbase Premium indicator rose, with US buyers paying more than overseas investors.

Santiment also reports renewed accumulation among wallets holding 10–100 BTC. This pattern hints at long-term holding rather than quick trades.

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Correlation And Caution Remain

When you consider the rally, Bitcoin still dances on the tunes of equity price swings. Futures have mixed bets between bulls and bears, showing portrait-wise signs that certainly not everybody is convinced this run is going to hold.

High volatility would tend to wash out weak hands at the slightest hint of trouble, any reversal of risk sentiment, or a sudden macro shock would cost the rally dearly.

Optimism is building as analysts talk of fresh all-time highs. Some even eye $150,000 by the end of the year if US debt levels climb further. But sustaining a rally of that magnitude will require more than forced liquidations.

Traders will watch derivatives flows, on-chain reserves and trade headlines for signs of real, lasting demand before pushing prices much higher.

Featured image from Imagen, chart from TradingView

More than 8% of Americans did not have health insurance during the first months of 2024, according to new survey findings published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breaking a streak of record-low uninsured rates following the COVID-19 pandemic.

An estimated 27.1 million Americans of all ages were uninsured through March, according to the quarterly figures published Tuesday. The CDC publishes estimates on insurance coverage every three months based on results from the agency’s National Health Interview Survey.

The increase amounts to 3.4 million more Americans who did not have health insurance during the first quarter of this year compared to the same time in 2023, the CDC estimates, when around 7.7% of Americans were uninsured.

Future rounds of the survey will paint a clearer picture of how high the uninsured rate will rise this year. The increases so far are not large enough to be statistically significant, said Christy Hagen of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics.

Tuesday’s figures come after years of record-low rates of uninsured Americans that Biden administration officials had touted in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the proportion of uninsured people fell below 8% in 2023 for four straight quarters.

Experts and health officials have credited the record low uninsured rates in large part to some pandemic-era changes to health insurance. Before 2020, the nation’s uninsured rate had peaked at more than 10%.

One big factor had been a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic of states reverifying the eligibility of residents covered by Medicaid, effectively suspending the “churn” that purges many otherwise eligible enrollees from state health insurance rolls.

The process of resuming eligibility checks after the pandemic — a mammoth bureaucratic undertaking dubbed Medicaid “unwinding” — is slated to wrap up in almost all states by this month.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated in June that the rates of Americans covered by health insurance were likely to worsen back to pre-pandemic levels by 2026, after declines in Medicaid enrollment and the end of temporary subsidies.

Recent estimates by the Congressional Budget Office have also forecast that the U.S. uninsured rate would worsen over the coming years. In addition to the end of pandemic-era insurance policies, the CBO’s modelers pointed to a surge in immigration as another factor that would likely drive up uninsured rates.

Alexander Tin

Alexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers the Biden administration’s public health agencies, including the federal response to infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19.