Dogecoin rose more than 15% to just above $0.10 in Tuesday Asian trading, the biggest gain among major cryptocurrencies. CoinDesk data showed bitcoin holding above $85,600 after adding about 5% over the past 24 hours, though it was little changed over the last hour.
The rebound followed a broad wave of forced buying that hit short sellers across the market. Over the past day, more than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated, and $844 million of that total, or 82%, came from bearish bets. CoinGlass data showed roughly 135,000 traders were closed out.
Short-covering wave loses force
A short position makes money when prices fall. Traders who borrow assets to put on that trade must post collateral. If prices rise far enough that the collateral no longer covers the loss, the exchange buys the asset back on the trader’s behalf. That forced buying can push prices higher again and trigger the next layer of short liquidations.
CoinDesk said that phase now appears to have largely run its course. Liquidations over the past hour came in at less than $11 million, down sharply from more than $300 million in an hour at the peak of Monday’s move. In practical terms, any further upside now depends more on new buyers stepping in than on sellers being forced out.
Bitcoin accounted for about $608 million of the day’s liquidations, while ether made up $181 million. The largest single liquidation was a nearly $21 million bitcoin position on Hyperliquid.
Major tokens mostly higher, with ZEC the exception
Beyond DOGE, XRP gained 7% to nearly $1.52 and SOL rose 5% to just under $117. Ether added 3% to nearly $2,740. BNB and TRX each advanced between 1% and 2%.
ZEC was the only large token mentioned in the report to trade lower, falling 4% to just above $1,450.
Asian equities extend gains on AI enthusiasm
Outside crypto, equities kept a firm tone through the Asian session. MSCI’s Asia Pacific gauge rose nearly 1% for a fifth straight day of gains. Chipmakers led the move, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix tracking Monday’s rally in U.S. semiconductor stocks. South Korea’s Kospi advanced 2%, and Taiwan’s benchmark hit an intraday record.
According to CoinDesk, artificial intelligence was the main driver behind that equity strength. Wall Street’s rally followed early signs of success for Meta Platforms’ new AI agent, while AMD moved toward a $1 trillion valuation.
Meta’s Muse gains traction, AMD briefly tops $1 trillion
Meta Platforms released Muse nearly two weeks ago. The AI agent works across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Since then, it has passed ChatGPT to become the top free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store.
Data from app tracker Apptopia showed Muse has drawn nearly 3 million installs worldwide. In the U.S. and Canada, its iOS downloads were almost 40% higher than what ChatGPT recorded in its own first 12 days on mobile.
The report noted that every AI-agent query runs on a server. That assumption helped lift chipmakers, as investors bet that a mainstream AI agent would translate into much higher server demand.
AMD, which gets about 5% of its revenue from Meta, rose as much as 10% on Monday and briefly topped a $1 trillion market value for the first time. Intel gained as much as 12% and Arm rose 14%, pushing the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up more than 4% in a fifth straight advance.
Alibaba and Tencent also lift Hong Kong-listed tech shares
Elsewhere, Alibaba said Tuesday it was rolling out what it called China’s “most powerful AI chip,” an accelerator designed to compete with Nvidia. Its Hong Kong-listed shares moved higher on the news. Tencent also rose after releasing a new image-generation model.