Cryptocurrency markets faced another sharp decline in the past 24 hours, with $1.58 billion in leveraged positions being liquidated. The overall market value fell by 7.5%.
Liquidation occurred once again.
A sharp market correction led to $1.58 billion liquidation in a matter of hours on Monday as Bitcoin suffered its second flash crash in a week.
Bitcoin fell 6.9%, and Ethereum fell more than 12%, sending the altcoin market down 7.5%.
According to analysis firm CoinGlass, 88.3% of liquidated positions were leveraged long positions, amounting to $1.39 billion, while the loss of short positions was relatively small at $184.27 million. Leveraged trading allows investors to borrow funds to amplify potential returns, but it also increases risk.
Bitcoin trading pairs accounted for $137.17 million in buy liquidations, 79% more than sells. Ethereum led the losses, losing $202.48 million in long positions.
Most of the top altcoins also experienced significant liquidations, but none exceeded $100 million. Dogecoin recorded $77.77 million in long liquidations and $10.5 million in short sales.
Cryptocurrency price decline
Bitcoin price plummeted from $101.2K to $94.15K on Monday before partially recovering to $97.7K at the time of this writing.
Ethereum recently saw an even steeper decline, falling from a high of $4,000 to $3,500 before rebounding to over $3,700. Dogecoin has struggled to hold key support, falling as low as $0.38 intraday before recovering to $0.422 at the time of this writing.
What triggered the withdrawal?
A correction seemed inevitable after November’s impressive market growth, but the exact cause of Monday’s sharp decline remains unclear.
Market participants speculate that the actions of the Bhutanese government may have had an impact. A wallet linked to the Royal Government of Bhutan transferred 406 bitcoins (worth more than $40 million at Monday’s peak) to Singapore-based broker QCP Capital on December 9, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence. Capital then sent these funds to Binance.
Bhutan, a top 5 government Bitcoin holding country, currently holds 11,688K Bitcoin worth $1.14B.
Adding to the uncertainty, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced the launch of Willow, the company’s first quantum computing chip that can perform calculations in less than five minutes that would take a modern supercomputer “10 trillion years.”
The announcement raised concerns in the cryptocurrency community about the potential of quantum computing to disrupt cryptocurrency mining.
However, Tyler Durden, a Bitcoin expert at Digital Asset Fund Soup Capital, stated that Willow has absolutely no ability to crack Bitcoin encryption.
“Willow has 105 qubits. To crack Bitcoin, you need 200 to 400 million qubits,” Durden explained.
Quantum bits, or qubits, are the foundation of quantum computing, allowing these systems to process multiple calculations simultaneously, but their current capacity still does not threaten Bitcoin’s security.
On the flip side:
- A correction was needed after cryptocurrency prices surged in November. Cryptocurrency traders are remaining cautious, anticipating further price declines, but the recent decline presents investors with an opportunity to “buy the dip.”
Why This Matters
The recent cryptocurrency market correction highlights the risks of excessive leverage, with overly leveraged positions incurring significant losses.
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