Bitcoin briefly dipped below $62,000 on Thursday morning Hong Kong time, sparking more than $1.5 billion in leveraged crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours as a wave of forced selling accelerated the market’s steepest decline in months.
More than 208,000 traders were liquidated across crypto markets, according to CoinGlass data, with bitcoin accounting for over $800 million of the losses and ether another $386 million.
The liquidation wave coincided with continued weakness in institutional demand. Investors have pulled roughly $1 billion from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs this week, according to SoSoValue data, extending the funds’ record streak of net outflows.
Presto Research argued in a note Thursday that bitcoin’s weakness may reflect broader competition for investor capital rather than any single crypto-specific catalyst.
The firm said bitcoin’s big move this year has coincided with gains in gold and artificial intelligence stocks as investors downgraded expectations of Federal Reserve rate cuts.
If this relationship holds, Presto argues, bitcoin’s recovery may depend less on crypto market developments and more on easing inflation concerns and a renewed shift toward liquidity-sensitive assets.
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