Crypto markets liquidate $300 million as Bitcoin soars to $44,000

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $44,000 overnight on March 1, and the rally that began on Monday sparked unexpected results.

Trader warns of 'huge variability' in BTC price

BTC/USD hit $44,250 on Bitstamp before consolidating, and remains above $43,000 at the time of writing, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView.

There were two major breakouts of the move, starting before Wall Street opened.

Analysts have struggled to predict Bitcoin’s price action amid a highly uncertain macro backdrop, a sentiment that continues as local highs emerge.

Looking ahead to March, popular trader and analyst Pentoshi noted that more factors will be added to the mix of macro factors.

"To state, March is a month of uncertainty," he told Twitter followers that day.

Still, he admitted that he “didn’t foresee” the extent of Bitcoin’s rapid rise despite maintaining a more bullish stance in February.

Aside from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, the Fed will make a decision on a key rate hike this month. U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data is due on March 10.

Meanwhile, bears have also been hit by the latest events, with data from monitoring resource Coinglass showing a total of $305 million in cryptocurrency liquidations in 24 hours.

LUNA shines as altcoins rally

As a result, Bitcoin has outperformed most of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, with a 24-hour return of 15%.

Ethereum (ETH) managed to rally around $370 to a local high of $2,970, but was still unable to break major resistance levels.

However, Terra (LUNA) was once again in the limelight, nearly doubling by more than 20% in just 7 days.