Bitcoin has found itself in an unfortunate position to kick off the week, having braved a flash crash that swept its price beneath the threshold of $69,000. Despite rallying to amend some of the losses, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap has already left a trail of financial wreckage, its plummet cleansing scores of cryptocurrency traders from their leveraged stakes.
This sudden, dramatic Bitcoin collapse found a sliver of solace resting just above $68,800. Yet, the full weight of this drastic shift has descended upon the community of crypto opportunists, the majority of whom grapple with the heavy losses from their leveraged positions. In the last 24 hours, the meltdown has cost over 81,000 traders their stakes, accumulating a considerable pile of liquidated positions.
Coinglass, a cryptocurrency data provider, quantifies this fallout to include more than 81,400 crypto traders left high and dry in the wake of the crash. Taken all together, these liquidations amount to an eye-watering loss upwards of $223 million. Among these casualties, one trader suffered an especially harsh blow; their position in the ETH-USD-SWAP pair on the OKX exchange succumbed to the largest single liquidation, costing them a staggering $7 million.
Not surprisingly, the brunt of these losses was shouldered by long traders. According to Coinglass, long positions accounted for 70.01% of the liquidations, signifying long liquidation volumes soaring past $156 million within a mere 24-hour window.
The OKX exchange, the petri dish for the greatest single liquidation, also held the grim title of the exchange with the largest liquidation volumes overall. It claimed a formidable 46.87% ($104.61 million) of all liquidations. Binance stood at second place, contributing 38.72% ($86.41 million), while Bybit came up third with 8.4% ($18.75million) of the liquidations.
When we look at the specific cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum predictably led the list in liquidation volumes at $36.1 million and $28.98 million respectively. Yet, ‘meme’ currencies like Dogecoin and PEPE were not spared either. Dogecoin’s 24-hour liquidation volumes rounded off at $10.4 million, overtaking Solana at $8.3 million. Right on Solana’s heels was PEPE, with liquidation volumes vaulting up to $7.1 million.
Long traders, across the spectrum of these cryptocurrencies, bore the brunt, caught in the undertow of dramatic losses. The foreseeable trends for long traders promise little relief. Coinglass data from the previous 12 hours highlights that long traders make up an overwhelming 85.64% of the liquidations. Shorter timeframes of 4 hours and 1 hour saw long traders account for 6.182% and 72.62% of liquidations respectively.
In terms of Bitcoin’s price trajectory, the cryptocurrency’s bullish investors are wrestling with a mounting resistance at $69,500. As per the latest data from Coinmarketcap, Bitcoin is trading at a slightly lower $69,450, suffering a 1.1% decline in the face of the day’s trials.
