Altcoins and Crypto ETFs Attract Dip Buyers After Record Liquidations

Cryptocurrencies are bouncing back after opening the week with heavy losses, with all but seven of the top 100 non-stablecoin digital assets by market cap posting gains over the past 24 hours.

Ripple (XRP) was the best-performing top 10 cryptocurrency with an 11% bounce, followed by Cardano (ADA) with a 7.8% rally, and Solana (SOL) with a 5.9% comeback, according to CoinGecko. Bitcoin (BTC) is up 1.3% to last change hands for $98,300, while Ethereum (ETH) regained 1% to tag $3,725.

Institutional investors pounced on the opportunity to buy shares in crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) at a discount, with $439.5 million flowing into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs on Dec. 10, according to Sosovalue. U.S. spot Ether ETFs hosted their third-largest daily inflow on record with $305.7 million.

Solana Swap (SOS) was the strongest-gaining top 100 digital asset of the past 24 hours with 23.2%, followed by Bitget Token (BGB) with 22.3%, and Raydium with 21.9%. By contrast, Movement Labs’ newly launched MOVE token was the worst performer with a 14.5% drawdown, followed by Sky (SKY) with a 4% loss, and Leo Token (LEO) down 2.3%.

However, Bitcoin is the only top 10 cryptocurrency to retain price gains over the past seven days, currently up 2.2%. Excluding stablecoins, liquid staking tokens, and Bitcoin wrappers, just 17 top 100 cryptocurrencies are up over seven days.

Late shorters suffer liquidations

Leveraged shorters are now feeling the heat after overexposed longs drove $1.5 billion worth of liquidations yesterday, marking a new all-time high.

Over the past 12 hours, shorts accounted for $56 million worth of liquidations, while longs suffered $36.2 million in margin calls, according to CoinGlass. Nearly 17.6 million in short positions were wiped out over the past four hours, compared to just $5.5 million in longs.

Stonks post mixed performances

The crypto market recovery bucked bearish action across several stock market indexes, with the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 sinking by 0.34% and 0.3%, respectively.

Asian markets posted a mixed performance, with Australia’s ASX 200 slumping 0.47%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 0.77%, and Taiwan’s TAIEX dipping 0.96%. However, China’s SSE Composite gained 0.29%, Korea’s KOSPI index bounced 1%, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 posted a meager increase of 0.01%.

The U.K. FTSE 100 also jumped 0.31%, while the EURO STOXX 50 bounced 0.05%.