The price of Bitcoin dropped from over $7,400 to a $4,100 low in a 24-hour period, before recovering to over $5,500 at press time. The price crash saw over $1.6 billion in liquidations on crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX.
According to data from Datamish, a total of $1.17 billion worth of longs were liquidated yesterday, March 12, the so-called “Black Thursday” that saw the price of BTC start to crash. The cryptocurrency wouldn’t hit its $4,100 low until today at 02:00 (UTC), which means the liquidations kept on going, with $485 million liquidated so far today.
Notably, the cryptocurrency’s recovery has also taken a toll on leveraged short positions. While on the Black Thursday $14 million in shorts were liquidated, so far today an additional $2 million were wiped out. In total, over $1.6 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated on BitMEX.
Source: CryptoCompare
Other cryptocurrencies accompanied Bitcoin’s price drop, which saw the cryptocurrency space lose around $93.5 billion in 24 hours. Behind the price drop are believed to be various factors, including a significant drop in all major U.S. equity indices, which went into bear market territory for the first time in a decade this week. The Dow Jones Industrial average fell by 10%, the most since the Black Monday in 1987. These drops continued even after the Federal Reserve announced a simulative bond-purchase plan.
On top of this, the World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 a pandemic, and in response to the situation U.S. President Donald Trump revealed a travel ban from Europe to the U.S., which excluded the United Kingdom.
The sell-off affected the safe haven asset narrative Bitcoin had, as investors moved their funs to U.S. Treasuries when things went awry. The drop, however, is believed to have been inflated by the long squeeze it caused, as it added to the downward pressure.
Featured image via Unsplash.
