On May 28, Bitcoin (BTC) price trended down and dipped below $72,000 driven by broad selling in the crypto sector, which resulted in a wave of liquidations. The BTC price fell as low as $72,493 in the last 24 hours.
At press time, the Bitcoin price was trading at $72,884, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It led to a 2.68% drop its value. The recent sell-off had over $120 billion erased from the crypto market and quickly forced leveraged traders out of their positions.
Data from liquidations on Coinglass indicates that crypto liquidated by total was approximately $923.46 million over the last 24 hours, with over 171,400 traders being liquidated in that time.
Bitcoin and Ethereum Lead Liquidations
BTC led the charge with some $357 million in liquidations, followed by Ethereum (ETH) with $237.24 million. The overall market impact of the downturn was significant, with other digital assets collectively reporting in liquidation at $89.31 million.
In addition, Coinglass data suggested that most of the losses were incurred by long traders. With $923.46 million liquidated in the 24 hours. Out of this, $850.25 million of the liquidations were from longs while $73.21 million were shorts. Liquidations totaled $640.12 million over the 12-hour period.
The biggest liquidation order reportedly was a $15.34 million BTC-USD trade on Hyperliquid.
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Bitcoin Price Dip & Trading Volume Spike
The market capitalization of Bitcoin lost ground to approximately $1.46 trillion during the drop. Meanwhile, the volume of trading over the past 24 hours increased by 177.2% to $42.34 billion, which indicates high volatility and frenzy among traders. However, Bitcoin is still the biggest crypto by market cap with a total supply of approximately 20.03 million BTC.
The surge in volume indicates traders quickly turned around their holdings as prices dipped throughout the crypto market. The fully diluted valuation (FDV) of Bitcoin also closed at around $1.53 trillion, and the asset was still well off of its all-time high of $126,198 set earlier this year.
Why It Matters
The dramatic decline in liquidation shows that leveraged trading remains a big driver of the crypto market’s volatility. Bitcoin has suffered massive declines in price suddenly, and when that happens, exchanges close out leveraged long positions. It causes sell pressure to filter through the market and even lead to bigger losses.
The current slump led to BTC recently falling from its status within the world’s top 10 largest assets by market cap. The decline is due to increased uncertainty in risk markets. Experts say that it was driven by traders’ responses to macroeconomic concerns, profit-taking, and increased volatility in digital assets.
Now, analysts like Michaël van de Poppe are keenly watching to see if Bitcoin can secure a break above the $72,000 level. They also cautioned further selling pressure will materialize as liquidations continue. Moreover, Poppe even expects a Bitcoin price crash to the $60,000 level if the breakdown intensifies.
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