In brief
- The crypto market retreated sharply Monday morning, with the total market cap dropping to $3.98 trillion.
- More than 390,000 traders were liquidated, with longs making up the bulk of the $1.68 billion in losses.
- Dogecoin dropped by 10%, leading losses among the top 10, while Bitcoin held relatively firm in comparison to altcoins amid volatile macro conditions
Crypto markets saw another sharp retreat as liquidations totaled nearly $1.7 billion in the past day, with Dogecoin, Solana and Ethereum leading losses among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.
The price of Bitcoin dropped by 2.3% on the day, posting smaller losses than those of Ethereum and other major altcoins as immediate price pressure piled on alternative assets. Dogecoin was the hardest hit, dropping by 9.9% on the day, followed by Solana (down 6.9%) and Ethereum (down 6.2%), per data from CoinGecko.
The broader market also declined, with CoinGecko data showing total crypto market capitalization at about $3.98 trillion after a 3.7% daily drop.
Around $1.68 billion in positions were wiped out across major exchanges over the past 24 hours, with more than $1.6 billion coming from long positions, according to Coinglass data.
Over 390,000 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with the largest single order, worth $12.7 million on OKX’s BTC-USDT swap, per Coinglass.
Ethereum, meanwhile, saw $501 million in positions liquidated, while Dogecoin lost about $61 million, placing both among the top tokens under pressure.
“The $1.7 billion in liquidations reflects an aggressive flush of leverage from the system,” Dan Dadybayo, research and strategy lead at Unstoppable Wallet, told Decrypt.
Some 95% of positions wiped out “were longs, which shows this wasn’t a short squeeze: it was overexposed bulls getting caught,” he said. “Once ETH and DOGE rolled over, cascading margin calls forced positions to close, with more than $1 billion liquidated in just one hour at the peak.”
Users of prediction market Myriad, launched by Decrypt’s parent company DASTAN, flipped bearish on Bitcoin Monday morning, with a slim majority of predictions now expecting Bitcoin to drop to $105,000 next rather than top $125,000. However, a substantial majority of predictions see Bitcoin holding above $105,000 throughout September.
A “classic liquidity spiral”
Sector breakdowns pointed to sizable losses in riskier categories, with leveraged futures and perpetual positions seeing outsized liquidations relative to shorts.
“Leveraged longs were the first to be squeezed, draining liquidity and widening spreads in a classic liquidity spiral,” Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told Decrypt.
Still, despite the “short-term carnage,” the liquidations expose “where capital was stretched too thin, while accumulation will slowly rebuild market depth,” he said.
The liquidations reflected forced unwinding of leveraged longs, with shorts accounting for only about $84 million.
Asked about exposure, Liu said that “large-cap altcoins and leveraged DeFi tokens” are most at risk, with liquidations “hitting those with thinner liquidity first.”
Such a scenario “reflects a risk-off sentiment, where traders are trimming positions across the board,” and shows how the market stress-tests liquidity.”
The latest wave unfolded amid a volatile macro backdrop after the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut, which barely budged the market and even resulted in a brief rebound before the weekend.
Looking ahead, the crypto market’s next moves “may hinge on Thursday’s jobless claims and Friday’s August PCE inflation data,” Liu said, adding that “a dovish read could spark a bounce, while hawkish surprises may trigger further stress the market.”
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