Bitcoin flash crashes to $90,200 causing over $885 million in liquidations

Bitcoin’s (BTC) historic rally above $100,000 hit a roadblock on Dec. 5 as the flagship crypto fell back into five-figure territory, leaving a trail of liquidations across the market.

BTC gave up almost all of the 24-hour gains that took it to a new all-time high of $103,679. It fell to a low of roughly $90,300 for the day before attempting a recovery.

Bitcoin was trading at $95,500 as of press time amid heavy volatility, based on CryptoSlate data.

Liquidations

Roughly $885.61 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, impacting 202,956 traders worldwide. Bitcoin accounted for $217.33 million of the total liquidations, followed by Ethereum (ETH) with $81.04 million.

Other altcoins also experienced substantial liquidations, including XRP with $37.07 million, DOGE with $32.25 million, and Solana with $23.74 million. A combined $92 million was liquidated across other cryptocurrencies, highlighting the broad impact of Bitcoin’s price movement.

Of the total liquidations, long positions were the most affected, contributing $391.51 million, or 62%, of the total. Short positions accounted for $242.84 million. The largest single liquidation was recorded on OKX, where a BTC-USDT swap worth $18.63 million was forcibly closed.

Binance saw the highest exchange-specific liquidation volume, totaling $53.22 million, followed by OKX at $46.03 million and Bybit at $30.54 million. Across all exchanges, long liquidations made up 87.48% of the total, reflecting strong expectations of continued price gains.

Market volatility

Long traders, who bet on rising prices, bore the brunt of the impact, with $640.83 million in liquidated positions — 72.4% of the total. Short positions, which bet on price declines, accounted for $244.78 million. The largest single liquidation occurred on OKX, where an $18.63 million BTC-USDT swap was forcibly closed.

Breaking down the data further, $284.43 million was liquidated in just one hour, of which $279.50 million were longs. Over the last 12 hours, $552.54 million in liquidations were recorded, including $482.81 million in longs and $69.72 million in shorts.

The four-hour liquidation figure stood at $428.42 million, reflecting heightened volatility during Bitcoin’s decline.

Editor’s Note: The liquidation numbers for exchanges and altcoins may not be up to date due to extremely high volatility at the time the article was published.

At the time of press 10:40 pm UTC on Dec. 5, 2024, Bitcoin is ranked #1 by market cap and the price is down 2.99% over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $1.89 trillion with a 24-hour trading volume of $143.6 billion. Learn more about Bitcoin ›

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