(Nov 15): Cryptocurrencies tumbled over the weekend, with bitcoin slumping to a three-month low of just above US$63,000 (RM257,424) as leveraged long positions were liquidated.
The largest digital asset sank 5.7% in the US on Saturday and continued to drop in Asia on Sunday to as low as US$63,311, down a further 1.7% and its weakest since Aug 17. Second-biggest token ether, which slumped 8% in the US session, fell to US$1,731 on Sunday, its lowest since July 9.
“I think this is a technical move, as bitcoin broke down through its 200-day moving average of about US$73,000, which has caused a slew of liquidations and new shorts to develop,” said Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of crypto market maker GSR.
Crypto has been pummeled in recent weeks by a confluence of factors including the expectation of higher interest rates, large outflows from US spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, an AI-fuelled risk-off mood and continued fallout from the recent US$6 billion Binance hack.
Bitcoin has slumped about 25% since Oct 21. Its low for the year is US$57,742, reached on July 1.
Large liquidation events — in which more than US$500 million worth of bitcoin positions are wiped over 24 hours — are becoming a recurring feature in the market, as sharp swings repeatedly flush leveraged traders out of their bets.
On Friday, bitcoin’s slide triggered the liquidation of roughly US$1.3 billion in long crypto bets over 24 hours, with bitcoin positions accounting for the majority of that sum, according to Coinglass data.
In the 24 hours through 7am Sunday in Singapore, exchanges tracked by Coinglass recorded about US$1.9 billion of crypto liquidations, including US$684 million in bitcoin and US$466 million in ether. Long positions accounted for the vast majority of the liquidations.
From Oct 30 through Nov 13, US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs saw almost US$3 billion in net outflows.
Rosenblum said bitcoin may be nearing a technical floor.
“Bitcoin has seen support at levels at or just below here over the last year, and we are approaching the bottom of a long term trend-channel,” he said.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja