Short Squeeze
A sharp price rise driven by traders with short positions closing them, which requires purchasing the asset back.
A short position profits if the price falls and loses if it rises, and closing it means acquiring the asset or contract that was sold. When a rising price forces many shorts to close at once, either voluntarily or through liquidation, that purchasing pressure pushes the price higher and forces still more closings. In digital assets the crowding is visible in advance through funding rates and open interest, since a heavily negative funding rate indicates short positions paying long positions to stay open. The effect is self-limiting: once the crowded positions are closed, the mechanical purchasing pressure ends.
En pratique
Sustained negative funding alongside high open interest indicates a crowded short position, the setup in which a squeeze can occur mechanically.
Le malentendu courant
A squeeze describes the mechanics of forced position closing; it is not evidence that the asset was mispriced before or after the move.