Bitcoin rose from $62,900 on August 16 to $79,500 five days later, a 26% move that left the price near $77,000 on Saturday. Trader MARMOT described the rally as a classic short squeeze, a rapid rise fueled by the forced closing of bearish bets, and said $3.1 billion in shorts had been wiped out. MARMOT also said retail traders were heavily buying on the belief that the market bottom was in, while more than $12 billion in long positions sat below the current price and could become targets for market makers. The figures were MARMOT’s own count, not an exchange disclosure.