Crypto Liquidations Near $2 Billion as Bitcoin Falls to $62,112
Key Facts
Bitcoin fell to $62,112 in Asian trading on November 15, its lowest level since July 14, as trading platforms recorded about $2 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations over 24 hours. The Straits Times said data from platforms tracked by CoinGlass covered the period through 7 a.m. Singapore time. Long positions accounted for the vast majority of liquidations, reflecting pressure on traders who had bet on rising prices as the decline continued. Bitcoin liquidations totaled about $774 million, while Ether liquidations reached $488 million over the same period. The figures put the liquidation wave at the forefront of market developments that day, alongside Bitcoin’s lowest level in months.
Traders linked the pressure to several factors coinciding, including expectations of higher interest rates and outflows from U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin funds. They also pointed to risk aversion tied to artificial intelligence and the fallout from the security breach involving Binance. The Straits Times said these factors had weighed on the cryptocurrency market in recent weeks. Between October 30 and November 13, U.S. spot Bitcoin funds recorded net outflows of nearly $3 billion. The outflows indicate weaker demand through those funds in the period before Bitcoin fell on November 15.
Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of market maker GSR, said Bitcoin had broken below its 200-day moving average, at about $73,000. He added that the break triggered a wave of liquidations and the emergence of new short positions. The level Rosenblum cited marks a technical point that, in his interpretation of the market, coincided with increased pressure on existing positions. The liquidation wave recorded on November 15 was larger than the liquidation of bullish bets following Bitcoin’s decline on November 13, when about $1.3 billion was liquidated over 24 hours. The comparison shows long-position pressure extending across consecutive days of declines.
On the claim that Binance had sold cryptocurrency assets, Binance’s news page quoted Changpeng Zhao denying it and saying he had bought cryptocurrency in recent days after receiving stablecoins. Zhao cited the movement of funds into Anthropic’s initial public offering as one possible explanation for market pressure, and also pointed to fund outflows and security concerns. The remarks were carried by Binance’s news page, while no direct public source was available to verify them. On the security concerns, Binance said in an update dated October 31 that nearly 90% of the assets affected by the incident had been made available again, and announced that it had published a proof-of-reserves snapshot. Market liquidation data alone do not establish that Binance sold assets; they record the liquidation of trading positions across multiple platforms.
The FBI said the U.S. government and private sector had jointly frozen more than $2.7 billion in stolen funds linked to the Binance hack as of November 12, the Associated Press reported. The agency said the Justice Department had obtained a court order to seize or restrict more than $1.2 billion of that total. The FBI attributed the theft of about $6.3 billion from Binance to a North Korean hacking group known as TraderTraitor. Bitcoin continued to trade below 65,000 USDT on November 15; Binance data showed a price of 64,900.929688 USDT at 14:29 UTC, down 2.10% over 24 hours. This later reading places the price decline within that day’s market moves, following the lower level recorded in Asia.