Key points:
- Bitcoin and altcoins tumble following crypto’s largest-ever liquidation.
- BTC struggles to recover from multi-week lows, inching closer to $100,000.
- A trader warns the market is undergoing a “cleansing” of bull-run euphoria.
Bitcoin pressured $110,000 support on Saturday as the dust settled on a record $20 billion liquidation event.
Trader warns of a “crypto cleanse” beginning
Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD failing to recover after slipping to three-week lows on Bitstamp.
Renewed jitters over the US-China trade war rattled risk assets across global markets. The S&P 500 fell 2.7% on Friday, while gold stood out as a safe haven, surging back above $4,000 per ounce.
Amid the crypto sell-off, Bitcoin’s relative strength index (RSI) plunged into deeply “oversold” territory. The four-hour RSI dropped to its lowest levels since the onset of the trade war turmoil back in February.
“Seeing a lot of short positioning rolling off here aggregately,” trader Skew wrote in ongoing coverage on X.
“Some passive buying ongoing mostly via coinbase spot (bit of a coinbase premium atm too). Spreads across the board are still super wide, MMs probably assessing damage before liquidity returns much later.”
Skew noted that even leading crypto exchanges faced turbulence amid the sharp market downturn.
Meanwhile, trader Roman — who had recently voiced doubts about the bull market’s resilience — warned that further declines were likely ahead.
“This isn’t the bottom,” he told his followers on X.
“There’s over 30m $alt coins that are mostly scam projects. $BTC also went up 700% from its macro bottom. The long awaited crypto cleanse has begun.”
Liquidations “likely far exceed” $20 billion
Traders who went all-in on the bull run faced losses of unprecedented scale in crypto’s history.
Data from CoinGlass shows that 24-hour liquidations approached $20 billion, with long positions making up the overwhelming majority.
“The real figure is probably much higher — Binance reports only one liquidation order per second,” CoinGlass noted on X.
Exchange order-book data revealed a sharp imbalance between bids and asks — with heavy resistance clustered around $120,000 and minimal support to halt a potential slide toward the $100,000 level.
