Bitcoin plummeted below $59,000 on Wednesday morning, reaching levels it hadn’t seen in six days. Similarly, Ethereum, the second-largest coin by market valuation, dropped below $2,500 after recording a 24-hour loss of 3.4% per data from CoinGecko.
According to CoinGlass, the sudden drop in prices has triggered marketwide long-position liquidations estimated to be worth $170 million. For starters, long positions are leveraged trades placed by traders who bet in favor of a future asset price rise.
Of the $170 million, Bitcoin and Ethereum traders accounted for $66 million and $53 million, respectively.
Many traders opened long positions on Friday after the United States Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled the possibility of an interest rate cut in September. Powell’s speech caused cryptocurrencies to rally massively over the past weekend. Bitcoin, for example, crossed major resistance levels on Sunday to reach $64,103.
“Expect Corrective Price Action in September,” Analysts Say
Analysts at Fairlead Strategies have warned that Bitcoin may fail to rally next month, claiming that September has been a “weak period” for crypto in the last nine years. They’ve predicted an extended corrective price action lasting until early November.
The current price drops are not limited to Bitcoin and Ethereum. Most of the leading cryptocurrencies have also taken a hit in the last 24 hours. BNB, the fourth-largest coin by market cap, has shed 3.1% of its value to trade at $534.06 as of this writing. Data from CoinGecko also shows Solana and XRP trading at $143.79 and $0.5654 after plummeting 6.4% and 5%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Dogecoin, the most popular and the largest meme coin by market cap is down 4.6% to $0.09901.
Toncoin Defies Marketwide Trend to Surge
Notably, Toncoin has finally regained its tenth position, overthrowing TRON, which has seen significant gains over the past few days due to the buzz around its meme coin ecosystem. Toncoin is up 2.8% today and changes hands for $5.53. Its price began rising on Wednesday afternoon following news that Pavel Durov, the Telegram CEO, had been released by French law enforcement and moved to court. Durov had been in custody since Saturday over allegations that his messaging platform lacks a moderation mechanism.
