Bitcoin (BTC) Has Plunged By More Than 15% During The Last 24 Hours

Data shows the cryptocurrency derivatives market has suffered liquidations of more than $1 billion in the past day as Bitcoin has crashed to $52,000.

Bitcoin price has crashed by more than 15% during the last 24 hours, which has brought its price down to the $51,500 mark. This sharp decline in the leading cryptocurrency’s value has led to more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency derivatives contracts being liquidated.

According to data from CoinGlass, the majority of these liquidations, around 85%, involved the long holders. This is a natural consequence of the market as a whole going through a crash, as those who had bet on the cryptocurrency rising in value would see their positions being closed out.

Interestingly, though, despite the sharp plummet, $173 million in shorts still managed to get liquidated, which isn’t really a small amount. Thus, it would appear that a large amount of investors only put their bearish bets in when the crash was already finished.

In terms of the individual symbols, Bitcoin and Ethereum have contributed to the mass liquidation event by nearly the same degrees, witnessing liquidations of $367 million and $350 million, respectively. Clearly, BTC is still ahead, but by only a small amount, which is not usually the case. The reason behind ETH’s high liquidations may be the fact that the recent launch of the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had put more attention on the second largest coin by market cap.