Bitcoin Monday’s price losses wiped out a massive leveraged bullish bet.
The transaction worth $61.5 million was forcefully closed by cryptocurrency exchange HTX, marking the largest liquidation in the past 24 hours, according to data source Coinglass.
The so-called selloff occurred as bitcoin fell from Saturday’s high of $68,600 to $64,400, erasing the weekend’s gains within hours. CoinDesk has contacted HTX for comment.
The outsized hit — large enough to suggest a concentrated whale or fund position rather than a retail margin call — landed amid a broader wipeout that resulted in $467.64 million in total liquidations among 137,422 traders, according to CoinGlass. Long positions accounted for $434 million, or about 93% of the total, indicating a market that was still positioned higher at the start of the week and was emptied when the bids disappeared.
Bitcoin futures alone saw forced closes of $213.62 million, followed by ether (ETH) at $113.89 million and solana (SOL) at $19.89 million. Hyperliquid’s HYPE token added another $10.72 million, a notable figure for an asset outside of the usual top five liquidation rankings.
Fear reigns supreme
The sell-off brought Alternative.me’s Crypto Fear and Greed Index down to 5 out of 100, a reading classified as “extreme fear” that has only been matched three times since the index launched in 2018: August 2019, June 2022 and earlier this month during bitcoin’s plunge to $60,000.
Glassnode data reinforces stress. The company said Monday that the seven-day moving average of realized net losses among recent bitcoin buyers was still near $500 million per day, meaning short-term holders continue to capitulate even after the first wave in February.
“Even though the intensity has calmed, the broader regime continues to report a market under pressure,” noted Glassnode, “with participants in the basic training phase continuing to capitulate.”
Bitcoin now sits 48% below its October all-time high of $126,000 and 5.5% below its 2021 bull market high of $69,000 – a level that once looked like a ceiling and now looks like a floor that continues to be tested. Monday’s disaster wiped out the leverage, but the pattern remains intact: Traders refill their long positions with each bounce, and the market continues to punish them for it.
