Bitcoin fell to just over $100,000 on Monday night before a slight rebound to $101,000, as a wave of forced liquidations and renewed macro jitters wiped out billions in speculative positions across crypto markets.
According to CoinGlass, more than $2 billion worth of futures contracts were liquidated in the last 24 hours, with long traders accounting for nearly 80% of the $1.6 billion losses.
Liquidations occur when traders using borrowed funds are forced to close their positions because their margin falls below required levels. On cryptocurrency futures exchanges, this process is automatic, since when prices move sharply against a leveraged trade, the platform sells the position on the open market to cover losses.
Large clusters of long sell-offs may signal capitulation and possible short-term lows, while strong short sell-offs may precede local highs as momentum shifts.
Traders can also track where liquidation levels are concentrated, which helps identify zones of forced activity that can act as short-term support or resistance.
The drop marks one of the biggest deleveraging events since September, indicating how fragile the positioning has become after weeks of wild price moves.
Bitcoin fell 5.5% in the last day and is down more than 10% over the week. Ether fell 10% to $3,275, while Solana’s SOL and BNB lost 8% and 7% respectively. XRP, Dogecoin, and Cardano also fell by 5% to 6%.
The total cryptocurrency market capitalization fell again to $3.5 trillion, its lowest level in more than a month.
“Bitcoin traded around $100,000 today as risk-off sentiment gripped financial markets, impacting a wide range of digital assets, stocks and commodities,” Gerry O’Shea, head of global market analysis at Hashdex, said in an email to CoinDesk.
“Recent speculation that the FOMC could approve another rate cut this year, as well as concerns about tariffs, credit market conditions and stock valuations, helped lower markets. Bitcoin’s recent price trajectory has also been affected by selling by long-term holders, an expected phenomenon as the asset matures,” O’Shea added.
On exchanges, Bybit accounted for $628 million in liquidations, followed by Hyperliquid with $533 million and Binance with $421 million. The largest close was an $11 million BTC-USDT long on HTX.
Despite the volatility, analysts said the overall outlook remains constructive.
“While $100,000 may be a psychologically important support level, we do not view today’s price action as a sign of a weakening of the long-term investment case for Bitcoin,” O’Shea said.
With the Federal Reserve holding back on further cuts and global risk appetite still fragile, traders say the coming sessions will test whether Bitcoin’s rebound can turn into a sustained recovery, or if another wave of forced selling is on the horizon.
