Bitcoin rebounded sharply in Asia on Friday after a fresh wave of selling briefly pushed the token towards $60,000, extending a brutal decline that has now taken the world’s largest cryptocurrency more than 50% below its October peak.
BTC fell as much as 4.8% to around $60,033 during late US hours, before rising back to $65,926. The move followed Thursday’s 13% drop, bitcoin’s steepest one-day drop since November 2022, when the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX triggered market-wide panic.
The bounce came as liquidations increased again, clearing leveraged positions that had built up during the week’s decline.
About $700 million in crypto bets were wiped out in the last four hours, according to liquidation tracker CoinGlass, including about $530 million in long positions and $170 million in short positions. That combination suggests traders were first crushed on the decline and then caught tilting the other way on the rebound.
The move also appears to have attracted spot buyers, with $60,000 acting as a psychological line that traders have been watching for weeks.
Damien Loh, chief investment officer at Ericsenz Capital, said the rally points to “strong support” around that level, but cautioned that sentiment remains fragile given the broader market context.
Altcoins mirrored the whiplash of bitcoin. Solana at one point fell as much as 14% before erasing those losses entirely within hours, showing how quickly risk appetite is changing as liquidity dwindles and forced selling takes over.
The broader crypto market has been shaky since a series of selloffs in October shook confidence, and the latest drop has been amplified by turbulence in global markets, where investors have been dumping speculative assets.
Bitcoin’s weakness is now spreading to cryptocurrency-linked balance sheets. Strategy, the company led by Michael Saylor, on Thursday reported a net loss of $12.4 billion in the fourth quarter, driven by the decline in the market value of its bitcoin holdings.
Even with Friday’s bounce, traders say the market still appears to be driven by leverage rather than conviction.
