Liquidations in cryptocurrency futures exceeded $400 million in the last 24 hours as Bitcoin (BTC) fell as low as $35,700, setting the tone for a downturn in the broader crypto market.
Coinglass data shows that Bitcoin futures alone saw $191 million in losses, indicating that most trading activity and open interest was limited to the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Ether (ETH) futures followed with losses totaling $64 million.
Liquidations occur when an exchange closes a leveraged position as a safety mechanism due to a partial or complete loss of the trader's initial margin. This happens primarily in futures trading, which only tracks asset prices, as opposed to spot trading, where traders own the actual assets.
Bitcoin fell below the $36,000 support level from $39,800 on Thursday morning following a sell-off in the U.S. equity markets. According to reports, the crash came as traders priced in higher interest rates to curb inflation in the U.S., despite a rally on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the country would do everything in its power to curb inflation.
Major cryptocurrencies posted relatively smaller losses. Futures tracking SOL from Solana posted $9 million in losses, followed by LUNA from Terra with $6.7 million. This is despite the fact that the two tokens have lost as much as 10% in the last 24 hours - suggesting that the selloff was led by spot assets.
Among other alternative currencies, ApeCoin (APE) futures posted the biggest losses at $11 million, followed by Stepn (GMT) at $10.36 million. Dogecoin (DOGE) futures lost $4.56 million after underperforming the market on Thursday.
OKX recorded liquidations worth over $161 million, the most among crypto exchanges. Binance followed with $104 million, while FTX recorded $56 million, the data showed.