Bitcoin Clears $81,000 as Real Buyers Replace the Short Squeeze

Bitcoin’s latest move above $81,000 looks healthier than the first leg of the rebound. The early push leaned heavily on short sellers being forced out.

Now fresh spot demand is joining the move.

CryptoSlate reports that U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $730.9 million on Thursday, their strongest daily intake since January. BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for roughly $454 million, while Fidelity, Grayscale and other products also brought in capital.

The report traces how the rebound evolved from forced buying into broader participation. Thursday’s ETF haul followed roughly $3.5 billion of August inflows, while daily exchange spot volume accelerated sharply from early-month lows and large-holder transfers increased around the same time.

Spot trading has strengthened at the same time. Daily Bitcoin spot volume rose roughly three to four times from early-August lows, led by increased activity on Binance, Coinbase and MEXC.

That matters because cash-market buying is a firmer foundation than a rally driven mainly by traders closing losing short positions.

The improvement has spread beyond Bitcoin. Ethereum, XRP and Solana gained more than 5% during the broad move, while Cardano and Zcash posted double-digit advances.

CoinDesk described an advance led by Bitcoin and privacy coins as the broader crypto market moved higher. Its market read placed Bitcoin above $81,000, highlighted Zcash’s leadership, and tied the move to improving risk appetite across major digital assets rather than an isolated jump in one coin.

CoinDesk captured the earlier stage of the rebound as XRP led the major assets and Bitcoin climbed back above $77,500:

MARKETS: bitcoin:native climbs back above $77,500 and ripple:native leads majors as Fed rate-hike odds drop to 62%. pic.twitter.com/oPLs3TyPxa

— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) September 3, 2026

Spot demand is improving—but $81,000 is not the finish line

The market still has work to do. Bitcoin reached roughly $81,400 on August 28 before falling back into a range between about $76,000 and $81,000. A longer-term moving average tracked by CryptoQuant sits near $82,300, making the area just above the current price another important test.

Options traders are not behaving as if a clean breakout is guaranteed. Roughly 29,600 Bitcoin options worth $2.39 billion expired Friday, but that represented only about 7% of outstanding options.

Much of the remaining call positioning is concentrated above $80,000, a setup that can create friction as dealers adjust hedges around heavily populated strike prices.

Implied volatility has also been falling while realized volatility rises. Put plainly, Bitcoin has recently moved more sharply than options prices suggest traders expect it to move in the near future.

That gap shows a market enjoying the rally without fully paying up for a continued surge.

Open interest tells the same cautious story. In dollar terms, Bitcoin open interest is approaching $48 billion.

Measured in BTC, however, the exposure is declining. Part of the headline increase comes from Bitcoin’s higher dollar price rather than a matching surge in the number of coins committed to leveraged positions.

Bitcoin Open Interest is telling a different story depending on how you measure it.

OI in USD is rising again, approaching $48B.

But when measured in BTC, Open Interest is actually falling.

The YoY change makes this divergence even clearer. Growth in BTC denominated OI has… pic.twitter.com/bzeuoxMgUQ

— Alphractal (@Alphractal) September 3, 2026

A stronger rally with a real resistance test ahead

The bullish part of the setup is straightforward: ETF inflows, stronger spot turnover and wider participation have begun replacing forced short covering. That gives the rebound a more durable demand base.

The caution is just as clear. Bitcoin is pressing into a zone that rejected it recently, options positioning is clustered overhead, and volatility traders are not pricing an effortless continuation.

A decisive hold above the low-$82,000 area would strengthen the case that this is more than another range-bound bounce. Until then, the market has better buyers—but it still has to prove they can carry Bitcoin through resistance.

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