Bitcoin’s price dropped by 7% on Friday during the London trading session, reaching as low as $67,000 before rising to roughly $67,700.
The flagship digital asset lost $7,000 after reaching a new all-time high of nearly $73,798 within a day. 192,910 traders liquidated in the last 24 hours, a total of $679.07 million was liquidated.
The biggest liquidation order ever was placed on OKX – BTC-USDT-SWAP, which was worth $133 million.
The price of ether earlier this week broke above the psychological $4,000 mark, but it hasn’t been able to stay above it despite four attempts. Following the “buy the rumor, sell the news event,” the network prepared for the March 13 deployment of the Dencun Upgrade. The well-known altcoin is down nearly 7% at the time of writing this report.
The token’s decline coincided with signs of increased caution in the derivatives market, which has recently been a lightning rod for bullish fervor. The recent surge in bitcoin prices has been too rapid for the market to price correctly.
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According to data from CryptoQuant, the funding rate, or cost, for positions in Bitcoin perpetual futures, which are well-liked by speculators due to their flexible expiry dates also dipped lower.
The expectation of a rate cut by the Fed has been further dampened by the recent strong CPI data, which triggered high selloffs in the digital space. Recent price action shows the market is adjusting its expectations on bitcoin given the uncertainties presented by the halving event as well.
The recent appetite for risk assets has been fueled by bets on the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. However, investors are now reevaluating these bets considering evidence of ongoing inflationary pressure in the US.
This week, pressure has also been applied to other assets like gold and Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index.
Even though the cryptocurrency market is focused on the approaching Bitcoin halving, which is only five weeks away, spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continue to be the main story.
Wealth managers show increasing interest in the Bitcoin investment product as they strive to maximize their capacity to meet client demands, amidst institutional interest in the space.
