Cryptocurrency Market Plunges; BitMEX Traders Suck Up $157 Million in Liquidations

The Bitcoin price performance at the start of 2020 had many analysts bullish. With the rising price, optimism missing from the industry since the summer of 2019 bull run was starting to return.

Is the 2020 Bull Run Over Before it Really Began?

More recently, things have begun to look a little more shaky for Bitcoin. From a yearly high of around $10,400, the leading crypto asset has spent the last two weeks in a clear downtrend. As crypto asset market analysis firm Skew (@skewdotcom) points out, this is the highest dollar value of liquidations at the popular derivatives platform all year.

$150mln+ liquidations on BitMEX today – highest in 2020 pic.twitter.com/WO7aKyNhcI

— skew (@skewdotcom) February 26, 2020

The previous largest day for liquidations in 2020 was on Jan. 20. At the end of Jan. 19, the Bitcoin price dropped by more than $400 in a matter of minutes. That too saw around $150 million suddenly change hands.

Optimistic Long Traders Wrecked

According to data taken from CryptoMeter.io, Wednesday saw more than $151.9 million worth of long traders wrecked and just $5.1 million worth of short traders [CryptoMeter.io]. The statistic shows a highly optimistic market, which given the hype surrounding the upcoming Bitcoin halving, is hardly surprising. It is not hard to see how a combination of steadily rising prices through 2020 plus talk of Bitcoin at $400,000 from some analysts would lead to so many traders being long.

How much has #Bitcoin rallied as a result of each of its Halvings to date?

Halving 1:

+13,378%

Halving 2:

+12,160%

If BTC rallies anything between 12,160 – 13,378% as a result of Halving 3…

Price of one $BTC will be $385,000 – $400,000https://t.co/4StGraQAaQ#Crypto

— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) January 17, 2020

Add a strong likelihood of leverage being used into the mix and the carnage only intensifies.