After the Securities and Exchange Commission approved all spot ETF applications, Bitcoin‘s price dropped below the $45,000 level on January 12 due to increased market volatility. The high volatility in the last 24 hours saw Bitcoin reach $49,000 before recording a sharp decline below the $45,000 level. The increased price volatility led to the liquidation of over $80 million in Bitcoin futures positions.
Liquidation Data Draws Attention
Most of these futures positions were long, with more than $47 million being liquidated. According to data analysis firm Coinglass, total liquidations for all leveraged crypto positions amounted to $209 million in the last 24 hours.
While the majority of liquidations were from long positions, with $121 million liquidated, approximately $88 million worth of short positions were also liquidated. In futures markets, liquidations occur when an investor’s position is automatically closed due to insufficient funds to cover losses.
This situation arises when market movements and the investor’s position turn negative, leading to a loss of the initial margin or the amount of assets set by the investor. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $44,586, down 3.95% in the last 24 hours.
Prominent Figure Comments on SEC’s Approach
The volatility that caused many futures positions to be liquidated was higher compared to the previous month. According to the data examined, the current annual Bitcoin volatility rose from 42.9% in mid-December to 46.5%. This data also shows that Bitcoin’s on-chain transaction volume has risen to a 12-month high of $41.5 billion.
Although the drop in Bitcoin price was seen as a sell-the-news event, an analyst suggested that the approval of multiple spot Bitcoin ETF applications provided institutional validation for the asset. According to Fadi Aboualfa, Head of Research at Copper, the approval of spot Bitcoin ETF applications indicates a shift in the SEC’s attitude towards the cryptocurrency market:
“The SEC’s approval shows that they actually believe the crypto market to be efficient, transparent, and free of market manipulation, which would not allow them to fulfill their important duty of protecting investors.”
