A further decline in the Asian morning exacerbated losses for hopeful traders as bitcoin lost the $98,000 level for the first time since May, extending a week of bleeding that dragged the majors lower.
Ether fell more than 8% to around $3,500, while XRP, Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA saw similar declines. The tone remained decidedly risk-free, with crypto following weak stocks in Asia as traders unwound their leveraged bets and turned them to cash.
Liquidation data shows the scale of the hunt. More than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were wiped out in 24 hours, with approximately $887 million coming from long positions.
This is one of the largest bullish selloffs in a month. Around 235,000 traders were forced out of their positions, and the largest wipeout was a $44 million long BTC position on HTX.
Across major venues, Bybit, Hyperliquid and Binance each saw more than $180 million in long liquidations, accounting for more than 85% of all bets, reflecting how aggressively traders leaned into last week’s rally.
The pattern before the decline was fragile, as funding rates turned positive across all majors, open interest increased, and spot volumes declined, creating conditions that often amplified the decline once the momentum reversed.
As BTC crossed $100,000, pockets of liquidity evaporated on the downside, creating a void that accelerated the advance towards $97,000.
Macroeconomic headwinds added fuel. The latest Chinese data shows a slowdown in economic activity much more than expected. Industrial production slowed to 4.9% year-on-year from 6.5% in September, while investment in fixed capital contracted by 1.7% in the first 10 months, in a historic collapse.
The numbers immediately hit Asian stocks, with the MSCI Asia-Pacific index falling 1.3% and chipmakers leading the losses. The weakness spread to crypto within minutes, mirroring trends seen throughout the fourth quarter, where digital assets behaved like a high-beta macro risk.
At the same time, hopes for a December Federal Reserve rate cut faded after a series of cautious remarks from officials. Money markets now put the probability of a rate cut in December at less than 50%, down sharply from the start of the week. This change, combined with the wobble in global stocks, created the latest crypto decline as traders reassessed their positioning through the end of the year.
For crypto, the immediate question is whether forced unwinds have run their course.
BTC’s break below $98,000 puts emphasis on support near $94,000, while altcoins remain vulnerable if stocks extend their decline.
But structurally, liquidation-induced resets have often marked areas of exhaustion. Whether this dynamic repeats largely depends on macroeconomic volatility stabilizing over the next 48 hours.
