Over $344 Million Liquidated as Bitcoin, Ethereum Continue to Drop

On the day of the U.S. midterms and two days ahead of the latest CPI report, Bitcoin and Ethereum have been rattled. 

Bitcoin’s (BTC) bullish momentum has faded, with the leading cryptocurrency hitting a new weekly low of $19,563.35, according to data from Coingecko.

After staging a modest recovery, Bitcoin now changes hands at around $19,730, down 4.8% over the past 24 hours, suggests data from CoinGecko.

The bearish price action accompanied Bitcoin’s daily trading volume rising 48.54% to $343 billion over the same period. 

The day’s bearish price momentum reversed Bitcoin’s weekly gains. BTC was down 4% over the past week and 71.4% from its all-time high of $69,044.77 in November 2021.

The market capitalization of Bitcoin has also lost two-thirds of its value since those highs, plummeting from $1.27 trillion last November to under $379 billion today.

Ethereum follows Bitcoin

Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of roughly $178 billion, has also lost 6% over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.

Since October 25, Ethereum has managed to hold above the crucial $1,500 level. 

Earlier today, ETH breached that level, dropping as low as $1,454, the coin’s new weekly low. At press time, ETH changed hands at around $1,484 apiece, staging a minor recovery.

Despite the token’s diminishing price, NFT sales have still grown 9.51% to $12.5 million over the past 24 hours, per data from CryptoSlam.

As per data from DefiLlama, the total value locked (TVL) across all decentralized applications on Ethereum is down 5.47% in the past 24 hours, indicating reduced user growth in DeFi.

Terrified Long-Traders

As the crypto market enters the bear territory, almost $344.26 million from over 173,117 traders has been liquidated in the crypto market over the past 24 hours, per data from Coinglass.

Of the $344.26 million liquidated, more than 75% were long positions, indicating bullish speculators have had a brutal day of trading.

Ethereum leads liquidations with $86.75 million, followed by Bitcoin with $70.27 million over the past 24 hours.

Overall, cryptocurrency market capitalization has dropped nearly 4.5% from $1.072 trillion yesterday to $1.024 trillion today.