Crypto majors plunged as much as 20% in the past 24 hours as movements from a Mt. Gox-linked wallet spooked traders in early Asian hours, sending the market spiraling down 10% on average.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell 8% to briefly below $54,000, before slightly recovering, in a move that erased all gains since February. Ether (ETH) dropped more than 10%, Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA fell 8%, while dogecoin (DOGE) dived nearly 18%.
Coinalyze data shows that this caused over $580 million in liquidations tied to longs, or bets on higher prices, in one of the largest such events so far this year. Bullish bets on bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) recorded over $300 million in losses alone.
The largest single liquidation order was on Binance—an ETH trade valued at $18.4 million. Meanwhile, open interest—or the number of unsettled futures bets—dropped 12%, indicating money was leaving the market.
Liquidations occur when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial margin. It happens when a trader cannot meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).
Such moves came as defunct exchange Mt. Gox moved sizeable amounts of BTC to a new wallet, potentially preparing for creditor repayments. Mt. Gox is scheduled to start distributing assets stolen from clients in a 2014 hack this month after years of postponed deadlines. The repayments will be made in bitcoin and bitcoin cash, and could possibly add selling pressure to both markets, as previously reported.
Trading firm QCP Capital said in a Thursday broadcast on Telegram that they expect a dim market in the next few months: “We anticipate a subdued Q3 for BTC as the market remains uncertain around the supply from the Mt. Gox release.”
