Bitcoin (BTC) spiked above $86,000 after Monday's Wall Street open, with US stocks rising as oil prices continued to cool.

Key points:

• Bitcoin gained nearly 6% on Monday, briefly trading above $86,000 for the first time since late January.
• Crypto short liquidations totaled almost $800 million in 24 hours as analysts described the start of a “new bull market.”
• US stocks opened the week higher as WTI oil prices dipped below $92 per barrel.

Bitcoin and US stocks head higher as oil keeps falling

TradingView data showed Bitcoin hitting a fresh 33-week high of $86,332 on Bitstamp, up 5.7% on the day at the time of writing. The move marked the cryptocurrency's first trade above the $86,000 level since late January.

Upside quickly returned following Sunday's weekly close, which, at $81,120, was Bitcoin's highest since the start of May, as oil prices extended a decline that began late last week.

Signals from both Qatar's Foreign Ministry and US President Donald Trump that diplomatic negotiations to end the US-Iran war could resume helped send WTI crude oil as low as $91.59 per barrel on Monday.

“Middle East oil flows remain surprisingly strong despite the disruption to Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline,” JPMorgan analysts said in a note on Friday, quoted by CNBC and other outlets.

A report by The New York Times additionally claimed that the US planned to extend its trade deal with China by six months ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit on Sept. 23-25.

The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index were up 1% and 1.6%, respectively, at the time of writing.

Crypto short liquidations near $800 million in 24 hours

Bitcoin's gains, meanwhile, have been accompanied by increasingly optimistic commentary on longer-term price strength.

In its latest analysis on X, trading resource The Kobeissi Letter described crypto as being “in a new bull market,” citing a50% gain for BTC/USD over just two months as crypto short liquidations neared $800 million over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. Such liquidations occur when rising prices force leveraged bets against Bitcoin to close, requiring the affected traders to buy back the asset at market rates.

Commenting on Bitcoin's short-term prospects, Bitfinex Alpha, the research arm of crypto exchange Bitfinex, flagged buyer support, rising open interest and fresh capital inflows to US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as three key requirements for further price upside. US spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading in January 2024 and have since been closely watched as a channel for institutional exposure to the asset.

“For a breakout to be validated, we would want to see net taker buying rather than the profit-taking that capped the advances on 18 and 19 September,” it noted in a Monday blog post, adding:

“Coin-denominated open interest would also need to expand, indicating fresh positioning rather than a move driven primarily by short covering. Conversely, a daily close beneath $77,100 invalidates the structure to the downside, exposing the True Market Mean at $76,677.”

Crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital, meanwhile, confirmed that BTC/USD had broken out of a cycle of lower highs in place since October 2025 — and, with it, its prior macro downtrend. In his latest X analysis, he identified a new target trading range between $86,681 and $93,659.

“If Bitcoin is ready to confirm a breakout from the $60k-$80k range, its next milestone would be to try to enter the blue-blue range,” he wrote in commentary accompanying a chart highlighting the range, which figured prominently at the end of 2025.