On Wednesday, the crypto market received favorable news in form of the FOMC announcement and the price of Bitcoin eventually broke above $24,000. With the Fed turning dovish after being hawkish all through 2022, it has been a beacon for the crypto market to rally and the liquidations have ramped up as the market took advantage of this.
Crypto Market Liquidations Cross $130 Million
With bitcoin’s rally above $24,000, short traders have once again drawn the short stick and are getting brutalized in the market. As of Thursday morning, the volume of liquidations over the last 24 hours has quickly crossed $130 million.
Over 47,000 traders have seen their positions liquidated with the market rally and as expected, the vast majority of these have been short traders. Data from Coinglass shows that 72.96% of all traders affected during this liquidation event were short traders.
Furthermore, almost half of all liquidations took place on the Binance crypto exchange at 48.34%, while Bybit accounted for 19.37%, and OKX followed closely behind at 14.96%. Interestingly, the largest single liquidation took place on the Bybit exchange on the BTCUSD pair worth $1.69 million.
Liquidations cross $130 million | Source: Coinglass
Bitcoin leads the pack with over 1,670 BTC liquidated worth $39.67 million. Ethereum saw 20,560 ETH liquidated with $34.31 million, as the price of ETH rocketed past $1,660. Aptos, Solana, and Optimism made the top 5 with liquidations of $6.10 million, $4.05 million, and $2.95 million, respectively.
In the last four hours though, there seems to be a turn in the trend with bitcoin’s drop below $24,000. While short traders are still suffering the majority of liquidations (58.14%), long positions are catching up.
What Happens If Bitcoin Keeps Growing?
Bitcoin has since retraced after climbing above $24,000 but the digital asset still maintains its bullish streak. This means that there is still a long runway for bitcoin and it could possibly climb back above $24,000 before the trading day is over.
If this happens, then the liquidations are expected to ramp up quickly. BTC’s consolidation over the last few days had worked to sow doubt in the market, and short positions were opened during this time. The Fed’s decision to only raise interest rates by 25 basis points has already instilled more trust in investors who are now more willing to take risks.
BTC trending above $23,800 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
Presently, with BTC ranging above its 200-day moving average, $25,000 is more likely a point for the digital asset to end its rally before a major pullback.
At the time of this writing, bitcoin is still changing hands just below $24,000 at $23,800. Nevertheless, the digital asset is seeing gains of 3.39% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Coinmarketcap.