Blockchain
Bitcoin Crashes as Whale Sells 3,500 BTC, $310M Liquidated in 24 Hours
Bitcoin continues to experience significant volatility, extending a downtrend that began last month.
According to data from CryptoSlate, the price of Bitcoin has dropped by about 6% in the last 24 hours, breaking above the $58,000 mark and dropping as low as $56,900.
Market watchers have warned that if the massive sell-off continues, this decline could be a precursor to a price drop of the flagship digital asset to the $50,000 mark. Earlier today, blockchain analyst Lookonchain identified a whale who sold 3,500 BTC for $206 million in five hours on the Binance exchange.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, noted that buying activity has slowed as selling pressures have increased. He noted that Bitcoin has broken key technical and psychological levels at $60,000, a key point for miners and spot ETF buyers. Notably, this marks the bottom of its three-month trading range.
Thielen added:
“Price declines could accelerate as support breaks and sellers scramble for liquidity. Only uninformed traders are willing to buy here. A break of this support could cause a sharp decline to the low $50,000s.”
Some observers attribute the price decline to low market liquidity and concerns over the impending Mt. Gox BTC payment, which will be distribute approximately 9 billion dollars of Bitcoin to creditors. In addition, cryptocurrency exchange BloFin also published a research note warning of high downside risk for Bitcoin, especially if an unexpected event occurs.
$310 million liquidated
Bitcoin’s decline has caused substantial losses for cryptocurrency traders who were speculating on market movements.
According to Coinglass dataOver 110,000 traders have lost approximately $310 million in the last 24 hours, most of which was due to long traders.
Bitcoin traders bore the brunt, suffering losses of $94 million, including $82 million from long trades and $12 million from short trades. Ethereum wasn’t far behind, with liquidations reaching around $72 million.
The largest single liquidation took place on HTX (formerly Huobi), with a $10 million long position on the leading cryptocurrency.