Bitcoin Price Correction: $296 Million Liquidated, Can BTC Still Hit ATH?
Bitcoin Price Correction Triggers $296 Million in Liquidations – Can BTC Still Hit ATH?
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Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a rollercoaster ride over the past 24 hours, plummeting to as low as $68,830 on Binance before recovering some losses. While BTC is trading close to its all-time high (ATH) of $73,737, yesterday’s sharp decline sparked uncertainty about whether the leading cryptocurrency will reach a new ATH.
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Liquidation Data at a Glance
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According to CoinGlass, a crypto liquidations tracker, over $296 million worth of active positions were liquidated within the past 24 hours. Nearly 77% of these liquidations were long positions, indicating that traders were heavily betting on BTC’s continued upward momentum. Binance bore the brunt of the liquidations with $124 million, followed by OKX at $74 million and Bybit at $65 million.
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Bitcoin led the digital assets in terms of liquidated positions, totaling over $97 million. Ethereum (ETH) followed at $47 million, and Solana came in third with nearly $17 million. The total crypto market cap has shrunk by about 3.5% due to yesterday’s dip, currently valued at $2.48 trillion. It’s worth noting that despite BTC’s proximity to its ATH, the total crypto market cap remains significantly below its all-time high of $2.98 trillion recorded in November 2021.
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The discrepancy between BTC’s performance and the overall market cap suggests that altcoins have lagged behind BTC’s recent gains. This could reflect cautious investor sentiment, favoring BTC over altcoins during volatile periods. Conversely, it also implies potential for altcoins to catch up, tempting risk-seeking investors to accumulate them in hopes of significant gains relative to BTC.
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Bitcoin dominance, a metric that measures BTC’s share of the overall crypto market cap, is steadily climbing toward 60%. A higher BTC dominance could pose a challenge for altcoins already trailing BTC in price action.
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Can Bitcoin Still Hit ATH?
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The question of whether BTC will achieve a new ATH during this rally remains unanswered. Factors that could support a new ATH include the increased likelihood of pro-crypto US presidential candidate Donald Trump winning the election, the effects of BTC halving, increased inflows to BTC exchange-traded funds (ETF), and a low interest rate environment.
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However, sentiment indicators like the Fear and Greed Index suggest that the market is still in a ‘greed’ phase, hinting at potential for further market corrections before the next surge. Regardless of the outcome, the crypto market is likely to remain volatile in the coming days.
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Despite the recent price volatility, long-term BTC holders seem unfazed. Profit-taking remained relatively muted when the digital asset crossed $71,000. At press time, BTC is trading at $71,524, up a modest 0.6% in the past 24 hours, with a reported market cap of $1.41 trillion.
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Featured image from Unsplash, Charts from CoinGecko, CoinGlass, and Tradingview.com