Bitcoin and Altcoins: Recent Drop in Prices Explained
The leading digital asset surged to $67,000 before falling to around $64,500 during early Asian trading hours. Other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), and Toncoin (TON) also saw significant declines, each losing over 3%.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, posited that the recent drop in altcoin prices was anticipated due to last week’s significant token unlocks. He noted that digital assets such as Aptos, IMX, Starknet, SEI, and Arbitrum had unlocks totaling $483 million. This situation pressured venture capital investors to cash out, contributing to the downward pressure on Bitcoin.
He added:
“As altcoin volumes in Korea crashed, so did the funding rates, and this caused Bitcoin ETF flows to slow down. It has come as a surprise that Bitcoin is failing to rally despite weak inflation data, but the Ethereum and altcoin crash might have been predictable.”
$455 million liquidated
According to Coinglass data, recent price movements have liquidated $455 million across all assets from over 172,000 crypto traders in the past day. Long traders lost $393 million, while short traders saw $62 million liquidated.
Ethereum speculators faced significant losses, accounting for approximately $92 million, or 20% of the total losses. ETH traders betting on price increases lost $75 million, while $16 million was liquidated from short-position holders.
On the other hand, Bitcoin saw $47.43 million in long liquidations and $22.71 million in short liquidations. Large-cap cryptocurrencies like Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin also faced notable liquidations, amounting to $18 million, $4 million, and $60 million, respectively.
Crypto traders using the Binance platform accounted for over 37% of total market losses, amounting to $170 million in the past day. The most significant single liquidation was a $6.64 million long ETH position.
