Bitcoin
Wild Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) Price Swings Amid Spot Ethereum ETF Decision Triggers $350M Crypto Liquidation
Cryptocurrency prices saw wild swings on Thursday as traders anxiously awaited a US regulatory decision to list spot ether exchange-traded funds.
Within a stressful hour leading up to the eventual approval, ETH first fell to $3,500 around US traditional market closing time, then rose to near $3,900 as the first unconfirmed reports of an approval eventually appeared. stay above $3,800 after confirmation.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a similarly choppy episode falling to $66,000, then rising to $68,300 before paring gains below $68,000. However, ETH has performed stronger, advancing 1.5% over the past 24 hours, compared to BTC’s nearly 3% decline during the same period. The broad-market CoinDesk 20 index fell 1.6% for the day.
Amid the volatile episode, liquidations across all leveraged crypto derivatives positions soared to more than $350 million during the day, the highest amount since May 1. CoinGlass Data show.
Liquidations happen when an exchange closes a leveraged trading position due to a partial or complete loss of the trader’s initial money or “margin” – if the trader fails to meet margin requirements or does not have sufficient funds to keep the trade open.
Most of the eliminated positions were long positions betting on rising prices, worth around $250 million, suggesting that overleveraged traders were caught off guard by the sudden drop in prices. ETH traders took the biggest hit, with $132 million in liquidations, followed by $70 million in BTC derivative liquidations.