Bitcoin’s $116K breakout explained – Here are 2 reasons why crypto is up today!

Key TakeawaysWhy is crypto up today?The weekend ending 26th October saw a BTC rally of nearly 4% and the altcoin market followed the short-term bullish sentiment, aided by short liquidations driving prices higher.Is this move sustainable?The rise in volume on Monday was a good sign, but a Bitcoin move beyond $117k is necessary. If it materializes, a jump to the $124k mark and a market-wide bounce would be more likely.In 2025, there were 270k Bitcoin [BTC] moved that have been dormant for more than 7 years. This figure is the highest ever for a single year, and showed profit-taking activity from long-time holders as Bitcoin made new all-time highs this year.Yet, this spate of old coin movements was not enough to spook the market into dropping below the psychological $100k level.Neither was the liquidation event on the 10th of October enough to send Bitcoin reeling.There was evidence that suggested whales absorbed part of the selling pressure even as smaller wallets continued to offload holdings. Moreover, the increased whale holdings were not enough to keep the selling pressure at bay- but it might be that sellers are exhausted.With macro conditions turning favorable for risk assets and Exchange Reserves falling, long-term conviction outweighed short-term fear.Steady volume and short liquidations drive BTC higherAMBCrypto demonstrated in a recent report that Bitcoin was trading within a range. It was likely to push toward the mid-range level at $116k after defending the lows.The combination of technical support at $107.5k and the buying volume over the weekend suggested sellers might be exhausted in the short term.Source: GlassnodeOn top of that, risk sentiment remained strong across altcoins, which climbed 3.86% since the 25th of October.Liquidations accelerate BTC’s climbLiquidation data suggested that short liquidations also fueled the recent move. On that note, CoinGlass data showed that Bitcoin traders saw $164 million worth of positions liquidated in the past 24 hours.These market buy orders drove prices higher still. However, it ran into the mid-range resistance at the time of writing.Source: BTC/USDT on TradingViewThe past 24 hours saw above-average trading volume as the price approached the mid-range resistance at $116k. If this level is flipped to support, traders can expect a rally to the range highs at $124.5k.Source: CoinGlassBTC has been hunting the liquidity overhead in the past few days.The $116.6k-$118k area had another cluster of short liquidations that would be the next target. A move past $118k would set the market up for a bullish week.