Bitcoin’s Volatility Surge: $48 Million Liquidated in 24 Hours

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Fredrik Vold

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Fredrik Vold

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December 15, 2023

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The surge in volatility that followed the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate announcement on Wednesday caused some $48 million to be liquidated in 24 hours in the Bitcoin market.

As of press time on Friday, Bitcoin (BTC) again traded just below the $43,000 mark, after briefly trading above that level during the volatile trading sessions on Wednesday and Thursday.

Bitcoin’s yearly high of $44,700 was reached on December 8, and that number one crypto is still trading about 4.7% below that price.

For the past seven days as a whole, BTC is now down by 3%, although it remains up by over 17% on a 30-day basis, according to data from CoinGecko.

While the market now appears to have digested the Fed’s announcement to keep rates steady, the initial market reaction led significant liquidations of leveraged derivatives positions on both the long and short side.

According to Coinglass data, $35.4 million worth of Bitcoin shorts were liquidated on the day of the Fed’s announcement as price initially pumped higher on a more dovish stance from the Fed.

However, bullish long bets were not spared either, with $12.56 million worth of longs getting wiped out after BTC shortly after saw a sudden drop lower.

In total, around $48 million in leveraged positions were liquidated on the day of the announcement.

Notably, the Fed-related liquidations came after the Bitcoin market on Monday December 11 experienced the largest long liquidation event in three months, with $126.74 million in longs liquidated in 24 hours.

The liquidations at the time followed a sudden crash in the spot price of Bitcoin, falling from $43,800 to a low of just over $40,000 over the course of a few hours.

#BTC

Largest longs liquidation in the last three months.

👉 https://t.co/C47AgBCcTk pic.twitter.com/Oh6DyH0Nzn

— CoinGlass (@coinglass_com) December 11, 2023