Nearly $100 Million Longs Liquidated as Bitcoin Dips Below $61,000

Bears appear to be in control of the market, as the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin has dropped below the $61,000 mark. As it has, nearly $100 million worth of BTC longs have been wiped out in the past 24 hours.

Bullish derivatives traders of all cryptocurrencies—not just Bitcoin—have seen their wealth erode to the tune of $260 million in the past 24 hours, according to derivatives analytics platform CoinGlass.

In stark contrast, derivatives traders who shorted assets saw minor losses, as short liquidations now stand at just $25 million.

A large portion of these long liquidations have taken place since an announcement from the Mt. Gox trustee announcing that creditors will begin receiving their Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash next week. In the past 4 hours alone, long liquidations across all assets stood at $110 million.

Currently, the price of Bitcoin sits at $60,855, which is near the lowest it’s been in the past day. BTC has not seen these price levels since mid-May. In the past 30 days, Bitcoin has dropped by almost 12%.

Bitcoin Cash, however, has been impacted even more severely, as BCH is down to $350, a decrease of 9% in the past 24 hours. The coin is down nearly 30% in the past 30 days.

Both BTC and BCH will be disbursed to Mt. Gox creditors. The process, however, may take a while as the deadline to repay all creditors is set for Oct. 31, 2024.

Making matters worse for investors is the fact that German authorities have continued selling Bitcoin, which they seized from movie piracy site Movie2k. Last week, the German authorities sold $325 million worth of BTC, while they had nearly $3 billion worth of BTC in their possession.

Ethereum, the leading smart-contract Layer-1 blockchain, witnessed a 5% price drop as ETH long liquidations hit nearly $60 million in the past 24 hours.

Last week, a report indicated that $3,200 to $3,400 are ‘lines-in-the sand’ for ETH. A drop from $3,200 could thus likely prove further downside, as sell pressure from institutional investors could intensify.

The only coins that bucked the trend in the top 100 coins by market capitalization are LEO and FTM, which are up 1.1% and 0.5%, respectively.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.