Key Highlights
- Bitcoin fell below $87,543, and Ethereum dropped to $2,855, marking an 11% decline over the past week.
- Nearly $844 million in crypto was liquidated in the last 24 hours, affecting over 222,000 traders.
- The overall crypto market value fell to $2.98 trillion, with momentum from earlier gains disappearing.
The cryptocurrency market is in the red today, adding to the market retreat that has lasted for more than a month. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has fallen to $86,128k for the first time since April. This is a 2.15% drop in the last 24 hours and an 11% drop in the last 7 days.
Ethereum (ETH), the second largest crypto, is down to $2,855, also 11% drop in the last seven days and 28% dip after the price broke through the $4,000 support level in October. The total crypto market is down by 2.06% to $2.98 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.
As a result of this, traders have become very cautious as some stay away from the market and the Fear and Greed index falls to 15. In short, the momentum that had driven prices earlier in the year disappeared.
Almost $1 billion in market liquidation
The last few hours have been panic among traders, as in just four hours the market lost over $500 million to liquidations; in fact, about $844 million has been lost in the last 24 hours. Data from Coinglass indicates that the situation affected approximately 222,066 traders. Long traders are in hot waters, as $632 million of the total came from traders who had bet on prices going up while $211.55 came from short position traders.
This pullback came after weeks of activity from fast-moving traders unwinding positions. The month of October or “Uptober” as it’s called in the crypto space, saw record gains in crypto, but that rally left the market exposed.
Many leveraged positions were forced to close during a violent liquidation, which shook confidence and reduced liquidity across exchanges. The event left order books thin, making the market sensitive to even modest trading flows.
Even whales have begun to move Bitcoin to crypto exchanges from their cold wallets, and a prime example would be an OG whale, Owen Gunden, who has transferred well over $1B recently, possibly selling his entire portfolio.
