Bitcoin Drops Below $64,000 as $209 Million in Long Positions Liquidated

Bitcoin experienced a significant drop in value on Thursday morning, with its price falling below $64,000 and over $209 million in long positions being wiped out as the market faced a downturn overnight.

Data from Coingecko, as reported by Decrypt, shows that Bitcoin is currently selling at around $63,700, representing a 4% decline on the day.

The decline in Bitcoin’s price was part of a broader downturn in the cryptocurrency market, with the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies falling by 4.7% overnight.

Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also faced a setback, dropping 5.3% in the past 24 hours and trading around $3,090.

Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, Toncoin (TON) experienced the largest decrease, falling 10.1% in the past 24 hours to trade at $5.21.

Bitcoin Faces Setback

According to CoinGlass data, the market downturn led to the liquidation of over $209 million worth of crypto-long positions, including around $52 million in Bitcoin-long positions.

The recent dip in the market coincides with a halt in inflows into Blackrock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, breaking a 71-day streak of consistent inflows that propelled the fund into the top ten longest daily inflow streaks since 2004.

Bitcoin spot ETF outflows amounted to $120.6 million after three consecutive days of inflows, according to CoinGlass data.

This slump comes after the official approval of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in Hong Kong, with trading set to commence on April 30. 

Experts believe these ETFs could attract up to $25 billion to the crypto market if made available to mainland Chinese investors.

Additionally, the much-anticipated Bitcoin halving event occurred over the weekend. 

While historically bullish in the long run, the halving event often leads to short-term market fluctuations.

Since reaching its high of $65,230 on the day of the halving, it has dropped 2% to fall below $64,000.

Understanding the context:

• If a long position is liquidated, the trader loses the bet and their position is closed.

• Long positions are contracts that allow investors to speculate on an asset’s price increase. 

• A new Bitcoin token standard called Runes was also released alongside the Bitcoin halving event. 

• These tokens, essentially meme coins for Bitcoin, accounted for over 81% of transactions on Tuesday and stirred up a frenzy that impacted the network.