Bitcoin Price Decline Causes $500mln Worth Liquidations in a Hour

Bitcoin (BTC) faced huge resistance at $60,000 on March 15, leading to a steep price correction. Notably, $500 million worth long positions, which have been opened using high leverage, were liquidated in a little over one hour.

Jan & Yann, founder of Glassnode, pointed out that the latest round of Bitcoin liquidations in a hour is a new record. The founders also stated that over 50% of futures contracts prior to the beginning of liquidations had been opened using a minimum leverage of 20x.

Nevertheless, data provided by Bybt reveals $800 million worth liquidations in a little over 15 minutes. As per cryptocurrency market data provider, Datamish, the last 24 hours recorded dilution of 292 open positions worth $94.50 million on derivatives exchange BitMEX.

Likewise, in cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, 488 positions got liquidated for about $100 million during the same time span.

The second biggest single-day liquidation was recorded on February 22, when Bitcoin declined from its then all-time peak of $58,300 to about $47,000. At that time, $5.90 billion worth futures contracts were diluted during market crash.

Bitcoin, soon after hitting $61,745 on March 13, started going down the hill and reached $53,500, reflecting a drop of 12.3% on March 16. Currently, Bitcoin has recovered slightly to $55,268, reflecting a loss of 1.7% in 24 hours. The recent price correction is the third largest retracement in the prevailing rally.

Interestingly, the Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index indicated “extreme greed” in the markets past week. The decline in the price of Bitcoin has caused the indicator drop to “greed” zone, with a reading of 71, mirroring a slight improvement in market sentiment.