Mass liquidations, ETF outflows, and leverage unwind drag crypto back to late-2024 levels.
Bitcoin plunged below $65,000, recording its first-ever daily loss of more than $10,000 and one of the worst days in its history.
Over the past 24 hours, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by more than 8%, wiping out hundreds of billions of dollars and pushing valuations back to levels last seen in autumn 2024.
Bitcoin Sees Steepest Drop Since FTX Collapse
Bitcoin tumbled more than 16% in the past 24 hours, briefly falling to $60,000 and losing over $12,000 in a single day. According to CoinGecko data, the world’s largest cryptocurrency hit its weakest level since October 2024 and fell below its previous 2021 cycle peak.
Bitcoin is now down roughly 48% from its all-time high above $126,000 reached in early October, marking its steepest one-day decline since the FTX-driven crash in November 2022.
The sell-off spread across major cryptocurrencies, with Ethereum (ETH) down 12%, BNB falling 11%, Solana (SOL) dropping 14%, and XRP sliding 6%, over the same period.
Risk-Off Move Hits Commodities Too
Crypto was not the only asset class under heavy selling pressure. Silver plunged 15% on the day and is now nearly 40% below its record high set just a week ago.
Gold also declined more than 2.25% to around $4,839. While the sell-off was less severe than silver’s, the precious metal is now trading roughly 15% below last week’s all-time high.
Record Liquidations Signal Forced Selling
According to The Kobeissi Letter, Bitcoin just posted its first-ever daily decline exceeding $10,000, surpassing even the October 10 leverage flush, when $19.5 billion in positions were liquidated. The analysts suggested that a large market participant may have been forcibly liquidated.
Despite US spot Bitcoin ETFs recording $434 million in net outflows on Thursday, less than Wednesday’s nearly $545 million, forced selling intensified elsewhere, according to SoSoValue’s data.
Total crypto liquidations reached a staggering $2.6 billion over the past 24 hours. More than 579,000 traders were wiped out, the majority holding long positions ($2.14 billion), with Bitcoin accounting for $1.34 billion of those losses, as per CoinGlass.
Analysts Warn of Structural Market Weakness
The Kobeissi Letter described the decline as structural, arguing that cryptocurrencies have “never truly recovered” since the October 10 leverage flush.
In a Thursday post, analysts said the market has entered a vicious cycle in which liquidations and deteriorating sentiment reinforce each other, even as underlying fundamentals remain largely unchanged.
Why This Matters
The scale and speed of the crash highlight how fragile crypto markets remain under high leverage, raising risks of further downside despite stable fundamentals.
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