Bitcoin price crash wipes out $200 million in long positions

Many futures traders have been liquidated after a severe drop in the price of Bitcoin. Despite this, traders remain bullish according to their futures bets.

The price of Bitcoin nosedived yesterday, falling from $8,080 to $7,980 in an hour. Further losses ensued, as it reached a low of $7,700. It has since bounced back to its current price of $7,800.

Over the last 24 hours, $200 million in long positions—where traders bet the price will go up—was wiped out on one platform alone, BitMEX. A liquidation is when the trade is closed becuase the price has gone too far in the opposite direction.

A further $9 million in longs was liquidated on Bitfinex’s futures trading platform, according to data from DataMish. 

Despite the downturn, the futures market remains bullish. Looking at data from Bitfinex, 80% of traders are going long, while the remaining 20% are going short.

Trading volume remains high on some exchanges. BitMEX saw $5.4 billion in trading volume yesterday, with OKEx just behind at $5.3 billion.

Yet trading on Bitcoin futures exchange Bakkt continues to fall. On Friday, just $15 million was settled, either physically (in Bitcoin) or in cash, according to data from Skew.