Bitcoin’s downtrend expanded after Wall Street opened on July 30, with leveraged long positions falling significantly as the price fell below $66,000.
According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, the Bitcoin (BTC) price is trading at $65,798, down 2.3% over the last 24 hours.
This comes after a series of failed attempts to break above $70,000, suggesting the area is important for bears.
Commenting on Bitcoin’s recent price action, popular trader Skew noted that around $800 million worth of BTC futures open interest (OI) was wiped out following the recent drop from $70,000.
“It looks like the late long leverage unwinding move is complete here. Around 12,000 BTC or $802 million in OI has been liquidated.”
Open interest refers to the total number of BTC-related derivatives contracts currently concluded across all exchanges.
According to Skew, spot selling is the cause of the sell-off, with the market needing to increase leveraged long positions and spot longs to recover the weekly opening price of $67,500.
Fellow trader Daan Crypto Trades noted that long BTC liquidations were stuck at $69,000, which “caused a significant loss of open interest.”
Like Skew, Daan Crypto Trades also believed that spot trading activity would help determine market direction.
In a previous X post, Daan Crypto Trades noted that “large orders” were being placed above the spot price, saying, “It’s happening everywhere, and most are trying to hold the current price.”
According to Coinglass data, Bitcoin futures open interest has increased dramatically, reaching a new all-time high of $39.46 billion across all exchanges on July 29.
Given the rapid increase in OI, Daan Crypto Trades said, “I think we are going to see a lot more volatility.”
Accordingly, market participants have focused on long traders and spot buying activities.
Related: Bitcoin Analysis Warns That BTC Price Liquidation Will Begin Below $64,000
According to data from Coinglass, long BTC liquidations are expected to begin once the price recovers to $65,500, a decrease of about 0.25% from current levels.
The chart below shows that short liquidations are accumulating between $70,000 and $72,000. However, some longs using 10x leverage may be liquidated between $60,372 and $58,400, suggesting that prices may decline to these levels.
This article does not contain any investment advice or recommendations. All investment and trading moves involve risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making decisions.