when

Bitcoin (<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/bitcoin-price">BTC</a>) almost hit new all-time highs into March 5 as volatility swiftly liquidated late trades.
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/6a169da8-bb43-408d-8a5c-dfbd77417cbf.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView
 </figcaption>
</figure>
<h2 data-ct-non-breakable="true" id="bitcoin-liquidates-longs-near-all-time-highs">Bitcoin liquidates longs near all-time highs</h2>
Data from <a href="https://subscription.cointelegraph.com/">Cointelegraph Markets Pro</a> and <a href="https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BTCGBP/?exchange=BINANCE" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">TradingView</a> showed BTC price trajectory coming within inches of $69,000.
Despite daily gains of $5,000, the psychological importance of the highs became immediately evident, and bulls were unable to push through.
A subsequent reversal took the market back to the $66,000 area. 
Hours later, <a href="https://twitter.com/52kskew/status/1764895503513518151" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">flash volatility</a> saw BTC/USD drop $2,000 in three minutes — an event that disposed of around $20 million in long positions, per data from monitoring resource <a href="https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">CoinGlass</a>.
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/a7f728c4-ea2c-4b0b-8c45-07f16310458c.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 BTC liquidations data (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass
 </figcaption>
</figure>
This, in turn, made a dent in <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-record-open-interest-imminent-volatility">record-high open interest</a>, which nonetheless quickly rebounded to circle $31 billion at the time of writing.
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/baf8eef7-c11c-4699-b350-897ff9f2f718.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Bitcoin futures open interest (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass
 </figcaption>
</figure>
In a <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-shares-climb-after-hours-after-site-bug-fixes">grim repetition of events</a> from a week ago — one that was <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/btc-price-nears-67k-new-gbtc-bitcoin-outflows-550m">even predicted</a> by some — the largest United States crypot exchange, Coinbase, suffered another outage.
As before, customer balances began showing as zero, and criticism grew.
“The 2021 Bitcoin bull run dwarfs this bull run in terms of leverage, speculation and retail,” James Van Straten, research and data analyst at crypto insights firm CryptoSlate, wrote in part of a <a href="https://twitter.com/jvs_btc/status/1764780743287537755" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">response</a> on X (formerly Twitter).
Van Straten suggested that Coinbase had the technical ability to “handle the load” and that other factors were at play behind the scenes.
Coinbase’s support account on X <a href="https://twitter.com/CoinbaseSupport/status/1764749927010148500" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">confirmed</a> that the issue had been resolved.
“We have issued a fix which remediated the display issue impacting customer account balances and latency across http://Coinbase.com,” it stated.
<h2 id="what-btc-price-triple-top">What BTC price triple top?</h2>
Discussing whether Bitcoin could break through the final hurdle before price discovery, popular market participants appeared confident.
Related:&nbsp;<a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/btc-price-bearish-64k-5-things-bitcoin-this-week">Why are BTC traders bearish above $64K? 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week</a>
Trader Kaleo likened the mood to the 2020 breakout, which <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/btc-breaks-record-whats-next-coinbase-ipo-121319/">crushed old $20,000 all-time highs</a> in place since 2017.
“This pump has the same feel as December of 2020 when Bitcoin was approaching ATHs at $20K, and didn’t look back after it broke above it,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/CryptoKaleo/status/1764804325182775392" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">wrote</a> on X (formerly Twitter).
Fellow trader Jelle, meanwhile, shrugged off the idea that $69,000 would stay in place and mark a “triple top” pattern for BTC/USD.
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/00fef46e-a0e9-459b-b258-d106d001033f.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Source: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/stablecoin-tether-usdt-100-billion-market-cap">Tether’s USDT hits historic $100B market cap</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
A further post predicted a fresh surge for altcoins once Bitcoin breaks its all-time high — again in line with historical precedent.
“History is repeating in front of your very eyes, and you're looking for bearish signs,” Jelle <a href="https://twitter.com/CryptoJelleNL/status/1764919075275174398/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">commented</a>. 
<blockquote data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 “Get on the programme. This market is going higher.”&nbsp;
</blockquote>
<figure data-ct-non-breakable="true">
 <img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2024-03/1b314d08-ab28-45ca-8f21-c29331c4a00f.png" alt="" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 Altcoin market cap annotated chart. Source: Jelle/X
 </figcaption>
</figure>
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Bitcoin traders dismiss ‘triple top’ as BTC price stops $150 from $69K

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