Bitcoin fell below $62,000 on Thursday morning Hong Kong time, triggering more than $1.5 billion in leveraged cryptocurrency liquidations in the past 24 hours, as a wave of forced selling accelerated the market’s steepest decline in months.
According to data from CoinGlass, more than 208,000 traders were liquidated in the crypto markets, with bitcoin responsible for more than $800 million of the losses and ether another $386 million.
The wave of liquidations coincided with continued weakness in institutional demand. Investors have withdrawn roughly $1 billion from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs this week, according to data from SoSoValue, extending the funds’ record streak of net outflows.
Presto Research argued in a note Thursday that bitcoin’s weakness may reflect broader competition for investor capital rather than a single specific crypto catalyst.
The firm said bitcoin’s major declines this year have coincided with rallies in gold and artificial intelligence stocks as investors reduced expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts.
If that relationship holds, they argue, bitcoin’s recovery may depend less on developments in the cryptocurrency market and more on easing concerns about inflation and a renewed shift toward liquidity-sensitive assets.
