180,000 traders lose $520 million as Bitcoin falls below $25,000

Over 180,000 traders lost approximately $520 million as Bitcoin traded below $25,000, a price point, not seen since December 2020 as the market selloff seen throughout the year intensifies. Many have compared the decline in the market to what was seen in the 2008 market crash while others have likened this selloff to the Game of Thrones’ famous episode, “The Red Wedding”.

Bitcoin has fallen below a critical support zone, the $25,000 support zone and with it, liquidation, margin calls and loss of funds have become the order of the day. The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization has fallen approximately 8% as it currently stands below the $1 trillion as of the time of this writing, indicating that the market has lost its trillion-dollar status.

As with bitcoin, so it is with every other altcoin posting declines of 20% and more in the last seven days as the selloff deepens. A major focus has been the CEL token, the native token of Celsius, who has now lost over 50% of its value in just 24 hours as the platform announced it was halting withdrawals.

What you should know

• Liquidation refers to 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 is unable to meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open). Liquidation occurs in both margin and futures trading.
• Longs accounted for $351.62 million or 67.88% of the total liquidations seen in the market, as of the time of this writing. The shorts accounted for the rest.
• The blood bath seen in the market all through the year began in January as asset whales began selling of their holdings in what is termed as whale redistribution. Asides from the Russian – Ukraine war, the selloffs then got intensified when the U.S. Fed hiked its interest rate to 1%, the largest increase since 2000, as it handed down its policy decision in May.
• We are currently seeing the effects of these events and the policy decision made by the federal reserve.  The U.S. Fed increase of the interest rate brought about a strong dollar index (a measure of the strength of the U.S. dollar).
• As of the time of this writing, the dollar index is trading at a 20-year high, currently above 104 basis points.
• When Bitcoin sneezes, the altcoins catch a cold and this was exactly what played out yesterday. We saw a massive sell-off in the altcoin market, with many tokens losing 20% and more in the last seven days.
• Okex exchange accounted for the most liquidation, representing $186.74 million or 36.05% of the total liquidations. Binance came in second, accounting for $124.90 million which represents 24.11%.
• Bitcoin liquidations accounted for the most as expected, representing $225.72 million of the total liquidations in the last 24 hours. Ether came in second, accounting for $167.26 million and in third place, SOL, accounted for $13.21 million.

In summary, Bitcoin (BTC) plummeted under $25,000 amid weakness in the macroeconomic environment and systemic risk from within the crypto market, data shows. The asset has slid for nearly twelve straight weeks, falling from nearly $49,000 in March 2022 to under $25,000. It showed some signs of bottoming out in mid-May but worrying U.S. inflation data released last week did little to cushion falling sentiment.