Bitcoin registered an intraday low near $80,000 as a selloff across cryptocurrencies triggered more than $1 billion in derivative liquidations, overwhelmingly hitting traders betting on higher prices.
The largest cryptocurrency was trading around $80,744 at press time, down 3% over 24 hours and roughly 4% over the past week, extending a retreat from its recent attempt to reclaim $87,000.
According to CoinGlass data, $1.16 billion in positions were liquidated across the crypto derivatives market over the preceding 24 hours. Bullish positions accounted for $1 billion of that total, compared with $108 million in short positions. The pressure intensified quickly: CoinGlass recorded nearly $700 million in liquidations over a four-hour stretch, including $650 million in long positions. In total, 166,769 traders were liquidated.
The figures show how quickly market positioning has deteriorated, as falling prices force exchanges to close leveraged trades that can no longer meet collateral requirements. Such liquidations can accelerate a decline when exchanges sell assets or close long positions into an already weakening market.
Ethereum suffered the largest liquidation losses among major cryptocurrencies, with approximately $324 million in positions liquidated over 24 hours, compared with $240 million for Bitcoin. Ethereum fell below $2,500, down 4% over the period and extending its weekly decline to roughly 9.3%. The largest individual liquidation occurred on Hyperliquid, where traders closed an ETH-USD position worth about $20 million.
Losses spread across other major digital assets. Solana fell 7.2% over 24 hours to approximately $108.61, XRP declined 5.7% to $1.35, BNB fell 4.9%, and Zcash posted one of the steepest declines among the largest cryptocurrencies, down 14%.
The selloff follows warnings that leverage across the altcoin market had become increasingly stretched. In its October 7 weekly market report, Glassnode observed that a growing share of large-cap altcoins carried unusual leverage.