Crypto Traders Suffer $1 Billion in Liquidations on Sharp Bitcoin and Ether Selloff
According to Coinglass data, cryptocurrency traders suffered $1 billion in liquidation losses in the past 24 hours as digital asset markets suffered one of the worst sell-offs of the year and bitcoin price fell to a two-month low.
Bitcoin, the largest and original cryptocurrency, fell 7% to around $26,900 after falling to nearly $25,000 earlier in the day, its lowest level since June.
About $821 million in long positions - traders betting on rising prices - were wiped out during the rush for the exits, CoinGlass shows. Bitcoin (BTC) traders took the brunt of the losses, seeing $472 million in long liquidations, followed by Ether (ETH) at $302 million.
This was the highest number of BTC liquidations in a single day since June 2022, data from Coinalyze shows, around the time the leading cryptocurrency’s price plummeted to $17,000.
The liquidations came as crypto prices tumbled through the bottom during the US hours on Thursday afternoon and the slow downtrend of this Months turned into a bloodbath amid jitters in financial markets as foreign currencies plummet, economic worries rise in China and bond yields climb to multi-year highs. Crypto majors like BTC and ETH saw near double-digit losses, falling to their lowest levels since early summer.
Liquidations occur when an exchange closes a leveraged trading position due to a partial or full Losing the trader’s original money will close down or “margin” – if the trader does not meet the margin requirements or does not have enough funds to keep the trade open. When asset prices plummet, the momentum can trigger a cascade of liquidations that exacerbate losses and price declines.
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