KEY POINTS
- More than 200,000 crypto traders were liquidated Thursday night
- Over $815 million were long positions – trades that bet on coins going higher
- $BTC skyrocketed to $103,000, then plunged below $93,000 hours later before recovering to $97,000
Bitcoin hit a wondrous milestone Thursday, breaking the $100,000-mark and surging in the $103,000 highs, but just a few hours later, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value bled out, triggering over $1 billion in liquidations across the crypto board.
According to CoinGlass data, liquidations from Wednesday night through Thursday night reached $1.10 billion, including more than $815 million in long positions.
Traders Hit Hard as $BTC Plummets
At one point on Thursday, Bitcoin plunged below $93,000, erasing some $10,000 in price gains. The digital coin's downtrend resulted in 209,431 crypto traders liquidated, with the largest single liquidation order valued at $18.94 million.
Traders on OKX suffered the largest brunt of the overnight bloodbath, with "rekt" long positions exceeding $268 million. Binance traders come in next, losing a total of $123.30 million during BTC's plunge.
The world's top digital asset is currently trading at around $97,000 and $98,000, still some $5,000 away from its spike earlier in the day.
Bitcoin Makes History
The significant losses came after BTC hit $100,000 for the first time since its launch. The milestone also drove Bitcoin's market capitalization above $2 trillion, making it the first cryptocurrency to join the world's ranked companies with the largest market values.
Celebrations filled up social media, led by the crypto community on X. Prominent leaders hosted Spaces and Live videos to discuss the development that placed crypto on a pedestal it never had since being introduced to the world in 2008 through Satoshi Nakamoto's white paper.
Crypto Begins Trekking Recovery Road
When Bitcoin plunged, many cryptocurrencies followed suit, but while BTC struggles to reclaim $100,000, some top altcoins such as XRP, Solana (SOL), and Binance's BNB are making gradual progress toward recovery.
Memecoins are also moving up, with some outperforming Bitcoin and other major alternative coins in the past 24 hours. Among the better players were Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) and dogwifhat (WIF).
Sentiment Still on a High
Despite BTC's sudden plunge just after a glorious feat, crypto users remain optimistic as they expect the digital currency to recover soon enough and hopefully, hold the $100,000-line in preparation for another surge.
Bitcoin's $100,000 hit was a surprise just as much as its sudden crash was. While many analysts already predicted that BTC will only go higher after it surged in the aftermath of the 2024 U.S. elections, the "when" was difficult to project, the moon move was a surprise to many.
BTC may have shocked the world with its volatile ups and downs in the last day, but its longer-term chart remains in the green. It's still up by nearly 40% in the last 30 days and is still on a 120% gain in the past year.
