Bitcoin and altcoin plunge leads to over $300 million in crypto liquidations
Bitcoin’s value plummeted below $61,000 on Monday, with bearish sentiment mounting and the market witnessing over $320 million in liquidations within a 24-hour span. The inability of bulls to sustain crucial price levels as BTC trended downwards has led to a scenario where potential buyers are now eyeing a drop towards the psychologically significant $60,000 mark.
The downward trend has not been limited to Bitcoin alone; the altcoin market has also been affected, with Ethereum struggling to maintain its position above $3,300. Other major altcoins like Solana, BNB, and XRP have also experienced notable declines in the wake of recent gains. Among the top 50 coins by market capitalization, Uniswap and Maker have been hit the hardest, witnessing drops of 12% and 9% respectively in the past 24 hours.
The past day has seen liquidations surpassing $320 million, triggered by Bitcoin’s slide below $62,000. As BTC hovers below the $61,000 mark, the liquidation of leveraged long positions has surged past $324 million, with long positions accounting for over $286 million and short positions around $36 million.
Data sourced from Coinglass indicates that approximately $132 million of the total liquidations are attributed to Bitcoin. Long positions dominate the list of traders facing liquidation, with losses totaling nearly $122 million in the past day, while liquidated short positions amount to roughly $9.9 million. Notably, more than $95 million of the liquidated long positions have occurred within the last 12 hours, affecting over 85,440 traders. The largest single liquidation event during this period, as of 12:30 pm ET on June 24, took place on Binance, resulting in a $15.36 million loss in the BTC/USDT pair.
The sharp decline in Bitcoin’s price on June 24 can be attributed to the announcement by the trustee of the bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox regarding the commencement of repayments to creditors starting in July. With over $9 billion worth of BTC held by the defunct exchange slated for distribution, investors reacted swiftly to the news, causing a more than 5% drop in Bitcoin’s price and breaching key support levels. The market pressure intensified further due to recent selling activities by a wallet associated with the German government.
Earlier this year, German authorities seized close to 50,000 BTC valued at around $2.1 billion at that time. The surge in Bitcoin’s value over recent months pushed the total worth of the coins to over $3 billion. However, data from Arkham Intelligence reveals that the wallet linked to the German government has recently offloaded a substantial amount of BTC, potentially contributing to the market sell-off. Additionally, miners have also been selling a significant portion, with IntoTheBlock data indicating approximately 30,000 BTC sold post-halving.
