Bitcoin surges past $75,000 as $1 billion in shorts wiped out and ETF inflows hit $800M for a second day

Two forces combined to produce one of the stronger broad-market rallies in recent months. First, short liquidations: for the second day running, roughly $1 billion in leveraged short positions were forcibly closed as prices rose. When traders bet that prices will fall and prices rise instead, their brokers automatically buy back those positions — which pushes prices higher still, triggering more liquidations in a self-reinforcing loop. That mechanism explains why moves like today's can feel outsized relative to the underlying news. Second, institutional ETF inflows: Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs together pulled in $800 million on the day, the second consecutive session of that magnitude. Sustained fund inflows represent real buying pressure — money entering the market and staying, rather than leveraged positions that can unwind quickly. Bitcoin crossed $75,000 on the combination, up 8.5%. Ethereum gained 4.9% to $2,370. Solana added 6.4%, BNB rose 5.9%, and Dogecoin jumped 10.5% — the kind of broad participation that typically accompanies genuine momentum rather than isolated asset moves. XRP was the day's clear leader at nearly +19%, driven by Ripple's announcement of an RLUSD-denominated credit fund. RLUSD is Ripple's dollar-pegged stablecoin; backing a credit fund with it adds a concrete financial use case to the stablecoin ecosystem and gave traders a specific reason to buy XRP beyond the general market tailwind. The Fear & Greed index sits at 72 — firmly in Greed territory — reflecting the two-day run of positive momentum.

• –MANTRA's blockchain was frozen following an unspecified exploit, sending its token to an all-time low — an 18% drop — and raising fresh questions about security in the real-world asset tokenization sector.
• –South Korea's Shinhan Bank partnered with the Solana Foundation, Etherfuse, and Orca to issue tokenized funds on the Solana network, one of the more concrete institutional commitments to Solana's real-world asset infrastructure to date.
• –A single $2 million options trade on XRP volatility crossed the tape as XRP surged, signaling that at least some traders were positioning for continued large price swings in the token.