Cryptocurrencies slide amid long liquidation wave, Bitcoin briefly falls below $60,000

Cryptocurrencies extended losses on Wednesday as a wave of liquidations in leveraged crypto derivatives sent prices tumbling overnight.

Price Bitcoin Bitcoin was last trading down 3.2% at $60,026.37, according to Coin Metrics. The price of Bitcoin once fell to $58,080.87. ether It fell more than 2% to $2,525.26.

Adam McCarthy, research analyst at Kaiko, said: “There have been multiple large liquidations on cryptocurrency derivatives platforms. With prices falling rapidly, this could have a knock-on effect on longs, further exacerbating price declines. The market may continue to be volatile in the next week or so before the release of non-farm payrolls next week and the approaching September Fed meeting.”

He added that Tuesday also marked the end of an eight-day streak of inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs, with more than $120 million flowing out of those funds, which could weigh on the market.

On Tuesday night, the futures market saw $93.52 million worth of long Ether liquidations in a 24-hour period on centralized exchanges, forcing traders to sell assets at market prices to repay debts. Bitcoin liquidations amounted to about $85.93 million.

Bitcoin is expected to fall 8.5% in August, which would be its worst month since April. Ethereum fell more than 22% and would have its worst month since June 2022.

Bitcoin is still up 41% so far this year. Ethereum is up a more modest 10%.

“This is exactly the kind of wild-card liquidations and price action we see in bull markets,” said Ryan Rasmussen, an analyst at Bitwise Asset Management. “The bulls get knocked down, then the bears get knocked down, and so on. If you zoom out, a 5% move in Bitcoin’s price is just a blip on the radar.”

August is typically a quiet month for cryptocurrencies and risk assets, but this year it has been particularly volatile. However, cryptocurrencies are no stranger to sharp corrections during bull runs. Still within safe range The amount, valued at between $55,000 and $70,000, had been sitting there since April.