Meager Bitcoin recovery above $40k backfires for futures traders causing further $185M in liquidations

Crypto’s volatile price movement during the last 24 hours liquidated a further $185 million from more than 76,000 traders who held long and short positions in the market.

Data from Coinglass shows that traders betting on further price growth and a stronger recovery bore the brunt of the losses, with nearly $150 million liquidated. On the other hand, short traders only lost about $37.94 million.

Bitcoin traders accounted for the biggest losses of approximately $37 million in total liquidations. Long positions saw $24.91 million, while shorts recorded only $12.21 million.

Similarly, Ethereum saw a total liquidation of $27 million—about $22.44 million and $5.12 million in long and short positions, respectively.

Aside from the two major crypto assets, speculators on Chainlink’s LINK token also recorded substantial losses. As per Coinglass data, long traders on the Oracle blockchain’s LINK token lost $18.33 million, while short traders lost just $57,000.

Interestingly, the single largest liquidation during the reporting period was a $16.84 million long position held on Bitmex for LINKUSD.

Traders with positions on Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and Avalanche also recorded significant losses.

Across exchanges, traders on Binance saw the biggest losses, closing the last 24 hours at $76.93 million. Traders on other crypto trading platforms like OKX, Bybit, and Bitmex lost $45.85 million, $29.69 million, and $20.23 million, respectively.

Solana, Avalanche lead losers

This week, the crypto market continued its downward price momentum as Bitcoin’s price briefly fell below $41,000 for the first time in December. However, the flagship digital asset has rebounded to $41,131 as of press time.

Market observers have noted that BTC’s current price movement remains bullish amid the increased possibility of an approval for a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the U.S. CryptoSlate Insight added that the decline is not anomalous with past trends but falls within the expected behavioral patterns of the digital asset in a bull market.

Similarly, Ethereum, the second-largest digital asset by market capitalization, dropped 3% to $2,170 during the reporting period.

Meanwhile, high-flying digital assets like Solana and Avalanche topped the day’s losers list among the top 10 digital assets by market capitalization.

Solana’s SOL token fell by more than 7% to $65.94, while Avalanche’s AVAX token lost 14% to trade at $36.03 as of press time.