Bitcoin drops 4% as $156.4m in liquidations hits crypto market

Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell 4 percent in the last 24 hours, when $155.25 million worth of liquidations occurred in the cryptocurrency market.

After holding above the $60,000 level for four consecutive days, Bitcoin (BTC) fell below that threshold on Aug. 11 and fell even further below $59,000. The cryptocurrency fell to a daily low of $58,269 after previously reaching a peak of $61,562.

BTC price chart – August 12 | Source: crypto.news

According to data from CoinGecko, the overall value of the cryptocurrency market decreased by 4.32% in the last 24 hours, dropping its total value to $2.05 trillion.

Despite a 52% increase in global crypto trading volume compared to the previous day, trading activity remained subdued compared to the previous week. This latest drop brings BTC’s weekly loss against the US dollar to 9.7%.

Ethereum (ETH) also fell, dropping to $2,527 after reaching $2,711 earlier in the day. At press time, ETH was trading at $2,553.

Among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, Toncoin (TON) suffered the most significant loss with a 8.43% drop, followed by Solana (SOL) with a 8.12% drop and Dogecoin (DOGE) with a nearly 6.75% drop. As the evening of August 11 progressed, market prices remained volatile with increasing selling pressure.

Today has been a tough day for investors in the crypto derivatives markets as a significant number of long positions have been liquidated. Data from Coinglass shows that total crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours reached $155.25 million. Of this, approximately 80%, or $124 million, involved long positions representing investors who were betting on further price increases.

Crypto liquidation map – August 12 | Source: Coinglass

Over 61,637 investors were liquidated in the last 24 hours. The largest single liquidation occurred on the OKX exchange, where it reached $2.17 million.

Bitcoin took the lead with $41.31 million in liquidations, followed by Ethereum with $39.53 million in liquidations.

Binance topped the list with $7.04 million in liquidations — $2.42 million from long positions and $4.62 million from short positions, according to Coinglass. OKX followed with $3.48 million in liquidations — $1.30 million from long positions and $2.18 million from short positions.

As a result, total crypto open interest dropped by 3.12% and currently stands at around $27.5 billion, according to Coinglass data.

Despite the recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market, analysts at Grayscale Research are predicting potential price increases in the coming months. They believe that if the U.S. economy manages to “soft-land” and avoid a recession, token valuations could recover, with Bitcoin likely approaching a new all-time high later in the year.