Short positions opened in Bitcoin (BTC) have caused traders to lose over $178 million in the past 24 hours due to the price surpassing a critical resistance level. The price of Bitcoin jumped as expectations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approving a long-awaited spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) increased, resulting in the liquidation of many traders.
Highest Losses Occurred on Binance, Huobi, and OKX
Data shows that the total $400 million worth of cryptocurrency liquidations recorded on October 23 in futures contracts tracking BTC accounted for approximately 50% of the total amount, while Ethereum futures only recorded $50 million worth of liquidations through long and short positions. Liquidation occurs when an investor’s leveraged position is forcibly closed due to the partial or complete loss of the initial margin of a cryptocurrency exchange. Liquidation happens when a trader is unable to meet the margin requirement for their leveraged position (when they do not have enough funds to keep the trade open).
Current data indicates that there were $50 million worth of liquidations on each of the cryptocurrency exchanges Binance, Huobi, and OKX, indicating that traders were using high leverage on these exchanges. The largest single position liquidation occurred on Binance, with $10 million.
Signs Indicating Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETF Soared the Price
The price of BTC surged over 12% to $35,200 in the early hours of the day before retracing. This significant price movement added billions of dollars to the market value of the largest cryptocurrency within a few hours, driven by relatively low trading volume and excessive demand.
Crypto analysts and experts associate the recent price movement with the ticker filing made by the world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, in relation to the pending approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF by the U.S. federal regulator SEC. The increasing expectations of the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. have raised hopes for a renewed bull market in the cryptocurrency market, which has been stagnant for the past few months.
Lucy Hu, a senior trader at Metalpha, stated in a message shared last week, “Bitcoin is on an upward path with the possible approval of an ETF and the increasing number of ETF applications made by leading companies. The approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF and the halving of block rewards in April 2024 could lead the cryptocurrency market into a very strong bull market.”
