Liquidations Top $1.5 Billion as Bitcoin Plunges to $86,000

Crypto markets dropped for a second day as the selloff in technology stocks intensified.

Bitcoin plunged to $86,000 overnight as ETH dropped over 10% to $2,350 and SOL cratered to $132. The overall crypto market capitalization is down 9% in the past 24 hours to $2.97 trillion, dropping below the $3 trillion mark for the first time since early November, according to Coingecko.

More than 90% of the Top 100 digital assets posted losses, with Bittensor (TAO), AAVE, Hedera (HBAR) and Sonic (S) dropping by 10% or more.

Story Protocol (IP) continues its impressive run, rallying another 20% in the past day. Meanwhile, MakerDAO (MKR) and Celestia (TIA) posted minor gains.

Nearly 390,000 leveraged traders were liquidated for a total of $1.59 billion in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Bitcoin accounted for roughly half of that figure at $756 million. ETH and SOL made up $303 million and $108 million, respectively. This marks the largest long liquidation event since December.

Bitmex founder Arthur Hayes reiterated his call for Bitcoin to hit $70,000, citing potential selling pressure from institutional ETF holders.

After losing close to 10% of its value in the first half of this week, Bitcoin is on track for its worst week since August 2024.