Crypto plunge triggers $2.4 billion in liquidations

Bybit, the futures trading platform, reports that $2.4 billion were liquidated over the past 24 hours. Of that total, more than half ($1.26 billion) was liquidated in Bitcoin, and over a quarter of the rest ($530 million) was liquidated in Ethereum.  

Bitcoin looks to have seen one of its worst corrections in a bull market as the recent dip took it down to around $42000, a massive 35% fall from its high of $64000 only last month. 

Ethereum also continues to suffer, as it registered a 29% fall from the high it achieved as recently as five days ago. However, Ether has seen a fairly sharp rally over the last few hours as nearly 11% has been recovered from the drop already. 

The biggest liquidation event for Bitcoin long positions was seen last month, just a few days after the $64000 high. More than $9 billion was wiped off from Bitcoin longs. 

Most commentators are pointing to the Elon Musk change of heart on Bitcoin as to the reason behind the recent crypto plunge. However, some are saying that in order for the crypto bull market to continue, a large correction and possible sideways movement for a period of time, could be a healthy move for crypto for the longer term. 

Most of the altcoins have followed suit and have dropped even more than Bitcoin. Binance coin, Polkadot, XRP, Litecoin and Chainlink, all suffered double digit losses as the entire crypto market cap dropped back down to around $2 trillion, a $300 billion loss over the last 24 hours. 

However, all was not red in the crypto market. A few alts actually saw gains, against the US dollar, as well as against Bitcoin. Theta has risen more than 21% on the day in dollar terms, and a 17% rise against Bitcoin. 

Kusama continues its unstoppable rise. An all-time-high on the Bitcoin pairing was achieved earlier today, while against the dollar it is extremely close to doing the same thing. 

DeFi blue chip plays AAVE and SUSHI both recorded a more than 10% gain on their BTC pairings, while SOL, a super-fast smart contract blockchain is continuing to out-perform BTC and has posted all-time-highs against the number one crypto currency on each of the last two days. 

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.