IRYS soars 1,200% in a day, then loses over 70%: how a short squeeze works

The IRYS price rose about 1,208% in 24 hours as exchanges forced $21.4 million of bets against it to close, then fell more than 70% from its peak.

Evento: 23 de octubre de 2026
Fuente primaria: 23 de octubre de 2026
Publicado aquí: 24 de octubre de 2026 a las 07:25 UTC
Leer: 2 min

Qué pasó

On Friday, 23 October, the IRYS token rose about 1,208% in 24 hours to $0.2806, The Defiant calculated from CoinGecko data. That is far above its May high. On Saturday morning CoinGecko showed $0.0813, more than 70% below the day's peak of $0.2959. Irys is a blockchain that stores data and runs smart contracts.

Por qué te importa

The rise came with forced closing of bets against the token. AMBCrypto, using CoinMarketCap data, counted about $21.4 million of shorts and $2.8 million of longs liquidated in 24 hours. That is a short squeeze: when the price rises, the exchange force-closes losing shorts by buying, and the price rises even more. This rise reversed just as fast.

Qué revisar y vigilar

What started the rally: none of the sources has named a cause yet. Trading volume: CoinGecko shows $1.3 billion in 24 hours against a market value of about $163 million. And unlocks: only 20% of the 10 billion tokens circulate, and team and investor tokens are locked for the first year.

Liquidations by coin on Freekonomist

What happened. According to The Defiant, using CoinGecko data, IRYS rose about 1,208% in 24 hours on Friday and about 2,083% over seven days. On Bitget the IRYS/USDT pair traded between 0.02031 and 0.29517 USDT over 24 hours. Most trading happened on the Korean exchange Upbit: 609.3 billion won in a day. The May high on Bitget was 0.08985 USDT.

How a short squeeze works. A short is a bet that the price will fall, often made with borrowed money. If the price rises, the exchange closes the losing position by force, and closing a short means buying. Buying pushes the price up, and the next shorts get liquidated. According to AMBCrypto, about $24.2 million of IRYS positions were liquidated in 24 hours, $21.4 million of them shorts. Open interest, the value of all open futures, reached about $1.22 billion.

Futures went even further than spot. MarsBit reports that IRYS perpetual futures briefly rose above $0.50, up more than 780% in four hours, before falling back to around $0.10. The spot price followed: on Saturday morning CoinGecko showed $0.0813.

What we know about the project. Irys combines data storage with smart contracts. The IRYS token pays for storage and computing and is staked to validate the network. About 2 billion tokens circulate, 20% of the 10 billion total. Team and investor tokens are locked for the first year, and part of the supply is set aside for liquidity and handled by exchanges and market makers.

What nobody knows. AMBCrypto writes that the data does not show what started the rally or how much of it came from forced buying. None of the sources we read names news from the project itself as the cause.

Hechos confirmados

On 23 October IRYS rose about 1,208% in 24 hours to $0.2806, and about 2,083% over seven days.^[1]
On Bitget the IRYS/USDT pair traded between 0.02031 and 0.29517 USDT over 24 hours; the May high was 0.08985 USDT.^[1]
IRYS turnover on Upbit reached 609.3 billion won in 24 hours.^[1]
About $24.2 million of IRYS positions were liquidated in 24 hours: about $21.4 million shorts and about $2.8 million longs.^[2]
Open interest in IRYS futures reached about $1.22 billion.^[2]
According to AMBCrypto, what started the rally is not known.^[2]
IRYS perpetual futures briefly topped $0.50, up more than 780% in four hours, then fell back to around $0.10.^[3]
On the morning of 24 October IRYS traded at $0.0813, with a 24-hour high of $0.2959, $1.3 billion in 24-hour volume and a market value of about $163 million.^[4]
About 2 billion IRYS circulate, 20% of 10 billion; team and investor tokens are locked for the first year.^[1]

Implicaciones

ConfirmadoAnyone who bought IRYS near the peak is now down more than 70%.
Nuestra lecturaSmall tokens with heavy futures trading can reverse within hours, and trading them with leverage is risky both ways.
Nuestra lecturaHeavy trading against a small market value means the price is easy to push both up and down.