Bitcoin breaks below $64,000 as $691 million in longs is liquidated
Bitcoin fell to $63,617 on Saturday afternoon, down 6.7% in 24 hours, as a liquidation cascade wiped out about $691 million in leveraged long bets within an hour.
The Saturday cascade
Bitcoin slipped under $65,000 around 1 PM PT on Saturday, then broke below $64,000 as the selling turned into a liquidation cascade. As of about 2:15 PM PT, Coinbase showed bitcoin at $63,617, down 6.7% over 24 hours, with a 24-hour low near $63,270, its weakest print since mid-August. Ether traded near $1,749, down 9.0%, while Solana fell 10.9% to $69.15 and XRP dropped 10.7% to $0.8988.
The forced selling came in waves. More than $360 million was liquidated across crypto in five minutes, and about $645 million of longs in 30 minutes, according to Watcher.Guru. CoinGlass data showed about $691 million liquidated in one hour, with roughly $671 million of it longs against only about $19.5 million in shorts. The Kobeissi Letter put total liquidations at $1.8 billion over 24 hours and said crypto has erased about $330 billion in market value this week.
Why the selling fed on itself
The slide started before the weekend. Bitcoin dropped below $68,000 on Friday, its lowest level since Aug. 19, and fell nearly 10% for the week, its worst weekly performance since June, according to CoinDesk data cited by MarketWatch. Ether hit a three-month low of $1,926.47 on Friday. Shares of Coinbase fell 5.5% for the week, and Strategy, the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, fell 13.6%.
CNBC reported that MSCI will remove Strategy from major indexes at month-end, forcing benchmarked funds to sell. About $1.3 billion in leveraged positions was liquidated in 24 hours, mostly long bets, while U.S. bitcoin ETFs saw over $500 million in weekly outflows, largely from BlackRock's fund. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw $185.45 million in net outflows on Friday, the seventh straight session, with about $1.91 billion out since Nov. 5. Futures funding rates turned negative for the first time in a month. Analysts at Bitfinex put bitcoin's 200-week moving average at $67,800 and told MarketWatch the move looked more like a retreat from risk than a loss of conviction in bitcoin, with leverage and ETF outflows amplifying the drop alongside firmer yields and a stronger dollar.
The levels traders are watching
Bitcoin lost $70,000 on Friday for the first time since August and is on course for a sixth straight weekly loss, down more than 20% since Oct. 21. CoinDesk had bitcoin down 13.5% over the past week, ether down 18%, XRP down 16.3% and Solana down 18%. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index stood at 13 on Saturday, a reading classified as extreme fear.
On-chain analyst James Check told CoinDesk this is the fourth capitulation event since the all-time high, and called the current range a deep value zone last seen in February and late June. He noted that many sellers bought in September in the $80,000s and are now selling at the very price they wished they had taken advantage of three months ago. Whether new buyers show up is a separate question, and the ETF flow data on Monday is the first real answer.
- $68,000Bitcoin's low on Friday, lowest since Aug. 19
- 10%Bitcoin's fall for the week
- $1.3 billionLeveraged positions liquidated in 24 hours
- $500 millionU.S. bitcoin ETF outflows for the week
- $67,800Bitcoin's 200-week moving average
