Crypto Liquidations Reach $1.09 Billion as Bitcoin Falls to $80,433.6
Key Facts
Cryptocurrency positions worth $1.09 billion were liquidated in the 24 hours ended at 10 a.m. UTC on Friday, October 9, according to Cointelegraph, citing CoinGlass. The wave of position closures came as bitcoin fell to an intraday low of $80,433.6 during Thursday's session, according to Investing.com's historical prices. The cryptocurrency ended that session down 1.91%, extending the previous session's decline. The liquidations affected bitcoin and ether positions, with ether recording a higher liquidation value in a separate report published by CoinDesk on Friday morning. These developments coincided with transfers to exchanges by short-term holders, according to CryptoQuant contributor Amr Taha.
Bitcoin opened Thursday's session at $83,318.7 before reaching an intraday high of $83,509.4, according to Investing.com's historical data table. It ended the session at $81,733.8, above its intraday low. The cryptocurrency had lost 2.61% on Wednesday, October 7, entering Thursday's session after a larger daily decline than the one that followed. It opened Wednesday's session at $85,552.4 and peaked at $85,599.1 before closing at $83,322.1. That session's low was $82,805.2, before a lower low was recorded on Thursday as prices continued to decline.
In its breakdown of liquidated positions, CoinDesk reported about $356 million in ether liquidations over a 24-hour window in its Friday morning report. Bitcoin position liquidations totaled $298 million in the same snapshot, putting the value of liquidated ether positions above that of bitcoin positions. The liquidation wave included a single ether position on Hyperliquid worth nearly $20 million. CoinDesk described it as the largest single position liquidated during the wave covered in its cryptocurrency market report. It described the position as "an ether position worth nearly $20 million on Hyperliquid," among the losses recorded in positions in the cryptocurrency.
On cryptocurrency flows to exchanges, Cointelegraph cited Amr Taha as saying short-term holders sent 55,600 bitcoin to exchanges on Thursday, October 8. Taha said these holders "sent 55,600 bitcoin to exchanges at a loss on Thursday," describing the transfers he tracked. A loss in this context means the coins moved at a price below that recorded at their previous transaction, according to the report's explanation. This metric differs from calculating the gap between an executed sale price and the holders' original purchase cost. Likewise, coins arriving at an exchange address constitute a transfer to that exchange and do not necessarily mean the entire transferred balance was sold.
Thursday also saw a separate movement by wallets linked to the U.S. government, which transferred 12,267 bitcoin from a seizure wallet linked to the Bitfinex hack, according to CoinDesk, citing Arkham. The coins went to new, unlabeled addresses, according to the report on movements in government balances linked to seizures. The transfer did not register as an exchange deposit, distinguishing its route from short-term holders' transfers to exchanges. CoinDesk also explained that Coinbase Prime provides cryptocurrency custody services, alongside other uses of its addresses. According to the report, a deposit with the service does not necessarily indicate a sale, as it may be related to asset custody.
Against the monetary policy backdrop, the odds of U.S. interest rates remaining unchanged stood at about 82%, according to a report published by Investing.com on Thursday, citing CME Group's FedWatch tool. The odds were around 76% a week before that snapshot, below the level recorded as cryptocurrencies declined. A month earlier, the odds of rates remaining unchanged stood at about 54%, according to the comparison in the same report. The likelihood of a hold thus rose across both periods compared in the report, reaching Thursday's reading. The next monetary policy decision is due at the Federal Open Market Committee's October 27 and 28 meeting, according to the Federal Reserve's official calendar.