Traders betting on a crypto price increase were forced to close their positions quickly on Wednesday as the world’s largest cryptocurrency sagged.
Over the past 24 hours, long liquidations in the crypto market have spiked to $220.7 million, making up the majority of positions betting on a direction in prices.
Bitcoin fell below $65,000 late Wednesday, declining 2.5% amid the wipeout. The asset is trading at around $64,100, CoinGecko data shows.
An additional $32 million in short positions were also liquidated, according to CoinGlass data.
It comes as the broader market in the U.S. witnessed steep losses on Wednesday, with the Nasdaq 100 index declining 3.65%, its sharpest loss since October 2022.
Analysts and experts have tied Bitcoin’s performance to those of tech stocks alongside other tailwinds, including a changing political landscape in Washington, D.C., and bullish bets on U.S. spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds.
While short-term losses have caught traders off-guard, some analysts still see continuing upward momentum this year.
“We maintain a positive Ethereum outlook,” Singapore-based crypto trading firm QCP Capital wrote in a note on Tuesday, a day before Bitcoin sank. “Bitcoin’s achievement of an all-time high two months post-ETF launch provides a compelling precedent.”
“Anticipating sustained institutional interest, ETH’s price trajectory may gradually converge with its previous ATH,” it said.
The selloff in tech was reportedly triggered by Google parent Alphabet Inc’s and other major tech companies’ earnings report on Tuesday, which included higher-than-expected capital expenses.
This led to Alphabet’s stock falling over 5%, marking its worst performance since January. Additionally, Tesla saw a significant drop of more than 12%, while AI-darling Nvidia shed 6.8%.
While Nvidia’s market cap had surged past $3 trillion due to interest in artificial intelligence, it has since declined to $2.81 trillion as investor enthusiasm wanes amid a market correction.
