The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), has experienced a sharp decline, falling from $83,000 to below $80,000, down nearly 3% in just a few hours. At the time of writing, BTC is trading at $79,600, down 3.93% on the day.
Chart showing the decline in BTC price in the last 24 hours.
The sudden drop comes amid a broader risk-off sentiment and ongoing liquidity shifts in global markets ahead of Wall Street’s opening bell, after BTC showed resilience when markets across the board were slumping following the U.S. tariff announcement last week. Over $390 million worth of crypto positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, including $325 million in long positions, according to CoinGlass data. Bitcoin accounted for $121.4 million of those liquidations, followed closely by Ethereum (ETH) with $108.6 million.
South Korea’s leading exchange Upbit is currently listing Bitcoin at a 1.83% premium, while the overall crypto market cap has fallen to $2.59 trillion.
Ethereum has been particularly hard hit, falling to its lowest level since October 2023. ETH is currently down 65% from its all-time high, further weighing on investor sentiment.
“After a delayed reaction on Friday, cryptocurrencies are finally starting to crack,” said economist and longtime crypto skeptic Peter Schiff. “Bitcoin just hit a weekly low of $81,000. It could be a long day for those stuck in Bitcoin ETFs.”
Other major altcoins also took a hit, with Solana (SOL) seeing $19.5 million in liquidations, XRP $8.6 million, and Dogecoin (DOGE) $7.8 million.
*This is not investment advice.