Bitcoin falls below $26,000 in crypto market turmoil; $1 Billion Liquidated Amid Major Currency Slumps
Bitcoin value briefly dipped below the $26K threshold at 5:50 PM. ET on Thursday before quickly breaking above the $26,000 benchmark. At the same time, the expansive cryptocurrency backdrop saw an 8% drop against the US Dollar, teetering dangerously close to falling below the $1 trillion threshold. Additionally, a staggering $1 billion worth of derivatives positions have been liquidated in the cryptocurrency market.
Bitcoin falters and $1 billion in crypto derivatives trades settled
As we head into the weekend, the cryptocurrency sector faces a steep decline, losing 8% against the dollar in the past 24 hours. As of 7:22 pm ET on Thursday, the previous day’s global trade volume was approximately $69.60 billion.
Notably, $37.62 billion of that sum represents stablecoin trading, indicating a considerable shift from traders either turning to stablecoin pairs or gravitating towards the dollar-anchored token ecosystem. Bitcoin (BTC), the crypto forefront, is down 8.6% daily and 10.3% weekly.
Around $23.22 billion of global day trading volume is attributed to BTC transactions. Ethereum (ETH) lost 9.3% against the Dollar today and is 11.3% lower this week. XRP in particular saw a sharp drop on Thursday, dropping 14.7% daily and 20.7% weekly.
Excluding stablecoins, each of the top ten cryptocurrencies has seen notable declines amid this turmoil. Although BTC changed hands at $26,400 per coin at 7:22 pm. m., briefly dropped to $25,600 the coin just an hour earlier. Data from coinglass.com reveals that cryptocurrency enthusiasts faced more than $1 billion in liquidations in the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin long derivatives traders suffered a sizable loss of $477 million over the course of the day. Long ETH derivatives traders saw $307 million disappear, while long XRP positions found approximately $24.39 million in liquidations.
Breaking down the $1.03 billion settled on the final day: $189.67 million was short and $826.60 million was long. While XRP took the brunt of the day’s losses, SHIB was down 13.8% after complications with the Shibarium launch.