The cryptocurrency market is experiencing significant pressure recently. On Thursday, Bitcoin’s price saw a sharp decline, falling below the $85,000 mark for the first time in two months. During the session, it plummeted by 6.8% at one point, hitting a low of $83,240, its lowest level since November 21 last year. Other major digital assets experienced even more severe drops, with Ethereum, Dogecoin, Cardano, and Solana all falling by at least 7%. As the market rapidly retreated, over $1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated within a short period, highlighting the intensity of market volatility.
This steep decline continues the downward trend observed since early October. Although traditional tech stocks and safe-haven assets such as gold and silver have recently shown signs of recovery, Bitcoin’s price has remained stagnant or even weakened. To date, Bitcoin’s price has retreated by more than 30% from its all-time high recorded on October 6.
Market analysis suggests that this decline reinforces Bitcoin’s characteristic as a “high-leverage beta” among risk assets. Chris Newhouse, Head of Business Development at Ergonia, noted that the day’s weakness underscores how crypto assets often act as a “leverage amplifier” for traditional risk assets in the market. As tech stocks continue to face pressure, the digital asset market has further amplified the overall market’s selling sentiment. Meanwhile, excessively leveraged long positions were liquidated, creating mechanical selling pressure that worsened an already fragile market.
Data supports this view. According to information aggregated by Coinglass, over the past 24 hours, liquidation across the entire cryptocurrency market exceeded $1 billion. Among these, approximately $923 million were long positions, while around $120 million were short positions, indicating that market volatility was primarily driven by a stampede among long positions.
Bitcoin’s decline has also weighed on the performance of related crypto concept stocks. Digital trading platform Coinbase Global (COIN) and mining company MARA Holdings (MARA) saw their stock prices drop by nearly 5%, while MicroStrategy (MSTR), which holds a significant amount of Bitcoin, experienced a sharp decline of 9.6%.
Currently, investors are closely monitoring whether the $80,000 level will serve as Bitcoin’s next key support. Against the backdrop of declining overall risk appetite, accelerating leverage liquidations, and tightening macro liquidity conditions, the cryptocurrency market may continue to face significant volatility in the short term.
