Bitcoin Rollercoaster Liquidates $360 Million as Price Hits New High

In the past 24 hours, over $361 million worth of leveraged trades have been liquidated as Bitcoin experienced extreme volatility, hitting a new all-time high of $73,050 before retracing below $70,000 on March 12.

Most of the liquidations targeted long positions, amounting to $258 million wiped out, while short sellers lost slightly over $103 million, according to data from crypto trading platform Coinglass.

This liquidation event marks the largest flush-out of long positions since March 5, when Bitcoin plunged to $60,800 after reaching its previous all-time high of approximately $69,000.

Despite the significant price swings, volatility was relatively milder this time, with Bitcoin’s price fluctuating by 4.85% between its low of $69,365 and its high of $72,733, as reported by CoinGecko.

As of the time of publication, Bitcoin has stabilized around $71,400.

A spokesperson from 10x Research suggested that the increase in volatility may stem from traders anticipating a potential price correction. Additionally, there is a significant Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) sentiment among traders, which could further fuel the ongoing rally.

Furthermore, 10x Research highlighted a 5% increase in futures open interest over the weekend of March 9 and 10, speculating that these positions might have been established with tight stop-loss orders.

Bitcoin and Ether accounted for the majority of liquidations in the past 24 hours, with $106.3 million and $73.3 million liquidated, respectively. Other cryptocurrencies such as Solana, Dogecoin, and the Bitcoin-based memecoin Ordi (ORDI) also experienced notable liquidation events.