The crypto market’s latest short squeeze has eased after forcing $844 million worth of short positions to close, leaving Bitcoin largely steady while Zcash remained the only major token to post a loss.

Dogecoin led the market higher, gaining more than 15% to trade just above 10 cents during Tuesday’s Asian morning session, according to CoinDesk data.

Bitcoin was holding slightly above $85,600 and was flat over the latest hour after rising roughly 5% during the previous 24 hours. The majority of that gain came as traders betting against Bitcoin were forced to exit their positions.

CoinGlass data showed that more than $1 billion in crypto positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours. Short positions accounted for $844 million, or about 82% of the total, with approximately 135,000 traders affected.

A short trade generates profits when an asset’s price falls. Traders borrowing assets to open shorts must provide collateral, and a sufficiently strong price increase can cause exchanges to automatically close undercollateralized positions by buying the asset. Those purchases can add further upward pressure and trigger additional liquidations.

Bitcoin made up around $608 million of the total liquidations, while Ether accounted for $181 million. The largest individual liquidation was a Bitcoin position worth nearly $21 million on Hyperliquid.

XRP rose 7% to nearly $1.52, and Solana advanced 5% to just under $117. Ether added 3% to almost $2,740. BNB and TRX each gained between 1% and 2%. Zcash dropped 4% to slightly above $1,450.

The liquidation wave has since weakened considerably. Less than $11 million was liquidated in the latest hour, down from more than $300 million per hour at Monday’s peak. With forced buying no longer providing the same boost, the market’s next move will depend more heavily on organic demand.

AI Optimism Drives Asian Equities

Asian stocks also extended Monday’s positive momentum in U.S. markets.

MSCI’s Asia Pacific index climbed nearly 1% for a fifth consecutive session, with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix leading gains among chipmakers. The companies followed the previous session’s advance in U.S. semiconductor stocks. South Korea’s Kospi rose 2%, while Taiwan’s benchmark index reached an intraday record.

Artificial intelligence continued to fuel the broader technology rally. U.S. stocks gained after early signs pointed to strong adoption of Meta Platforms’ new AI agent, while AMD approached the $1 trillion market-capitalization mark.

Meta launched Muse, an AI agent built for Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, nearly two weeks ago. It has since overtaken ChatGPT as the most popular free app on Apple’s U.S. App Store. Apptopia data showed almost 3 million installs worldwide, while iOS downloads in the U.S. and Canada were nearly 40% higher during its first 12 days than ChatGPT recorded during its first 12 days on mobile.

The enthusiasm around AI agents is also boosting expectations for increased demand for computing resources. Because AI agents require servers to process each response, broader adoption could lead to greater demand for chips.

AMD, which derives about 5% of its revenue from Meta, gained as much as 10% Monday and briefly surpassed a $1 trillion market value. Intel rose as much as 12%, while Arm gained 14%. The gains helped the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climb more than 4% for a fifth consecutive session.

Alibaba added to the regional AI momentum, announcing Tuesday that it was deploying what it called China’s “most powerful AI chip,” an accelerator aimed at competing with Nvidia. Alibaba shares in Hong Kong rose following the announcement, while Tencent gained after unveiling a new image-generation model.