Bitcoin loses $19k as $100M is liquidated in less than 4 hours

Following a bullish start to Tuesday trading, where Ethereum gained 6% on Bitcoin as it marched back towards $2,000, the market turned to see Bitcoin lose $19k and Ethereum drop below $1,500.

The sharp decline in Tuesday evening trading saw over $100 million in Bitcoin liquidations in the space of four hours, with total liquidations across the entire market totaling $222 million.

Throughout the early part of Tuesday, trading Bitcoin was moving sideways, barely breaking 1% up on the day as Ethereum soared in celebration of a successful Bellatrix hard fork.

However, around 6 p.m. BST, the price fell dramatically, and the Coinglass chart below showcases the spike in long liquidations in the following four hours.

Further information from Coinglass states that over 100 thousand traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with total daily liquidations reaching $407.18 million. The single most significant liquidation was valued at $2.57 million on Okex.

At the time of writing, the Bitcoin bulls are fighting hard to defend the $19k support, which has been tested three times in the past six months. Bitcoin recovered within a few days on each of these occasions.