According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $69,200 on Tuesday before plummeting to as low as $59,700 in a rapid sell-off. This correction led to the liquidation of over $1 billion worth of leveraged derivatives positions across all digital assets, as per CoinGlass data. Heavy selling on crypto exchanges limited Bitcoin's price surge beyond $69,000, causing it to drop below $60,000 at one point. Large sell orders were observed on Binance's order book, with over 300 BTC, worth approximately $20 million, to be sold at $69,000 and more than 500 BTC for sale at $70,000.
The selling pressure significantly impacted Bitcoin's price, causing it to decline. After the CoinDesk Bitcoin Index (XBX) briefly reached an all-time high of $69,208 at 15:04 UTC, Bitcoin's price fell by more than $1,000 in a minute. The sell-off continued in waves, with the price first dropping below $65,000 and then further to as low as $59,700. At the time of writing, Bitcoin had recovered to $62,800.
The pullback resulted in a 7% decrease in Bitcoin's value over the past 24 hours, underperforming the broad-market CoinDesk 20 Index's (CD20) 3% decline. This was due to the relatively strong performance of ether (ETH) and solana (SOL). Other major altcoins such as Cardano's (ADA), dogecoin (DOGE), and shiba inu (SHIB) lost about 10%-12%.
The volatile price action led to a significant leverage wipeout, with over $1.1 billion worth of derivatives trading positions across all digital assets being liquidated in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. Approximately $870 million of the liquidated positions were longs or bets on rising asset prices. Liquidations occur when an exchange closes a leveraged trading position due to a partial or total loss of the trader's initial margin if the trader fails to have enough funds to cover the position's losses. When asset prices plummet, this dynamic can trigger a cascade of liquidations, exacerbating losses and price declines. Major liquidation events often mark a local top or bottom for the asset's price.
