Crypto Markets Bleed: Bitcoin Teeters on the Edge of Liquidation

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Markets

What to know:

  • BTC has slipped 4.7% in the last 24 hours to about $63,100; should it breach the sacred line of $60,000, one might expect a procession of liquidations and a slow pilgrimage toward the stubborn $52,500 support.
  • The alt-coin constellation fumbles as BCH falls 11.5%, while APT, ATOM and SUI retreat 5%-8% as liquidity thins and sellers take a seat at the table.
  • DeFi TVL holds better than token prices, a hint that money is moving into stablecoins; RSI whispers of a possible short-term bounce.

Bitcoin declined for a fourth straight day to around $63,100, its nadir since February’s $60,200, CoinDesk data show.

The new movement downward arrives with risk-off sentiment across markets. U.S. equities retreat, while the dollar index climbs about 0.5% since Asian hours on Monday.

BTC is down 2.1% since midnight UTC and 4.7% over the past 24 hours. Breaking below $60,000 would unleash another round of liquidations and perhaps drag the price down to as low as $52,500, a level that has loitered in the charts since 2021.

The altcoin market also bears bruises on Tuesday: BCH’s gloom deepens, losing 11.5% of its value over 24 hours with a 3% drop since midnight UTC, while SUI, JUP, PUMP and WLFI shed more than 2% each.

Analysts describe the action as a “slow bleed,” a familiar aria from bear markets, though the RSI shows oversold conditions-perhaps a ghost of a bounce in the low $60,000s.

Derivatives positioning

  • Notional open interest in crypto futures has fallen more than 4% to $92.5 billion, the lowest since early April 2025. Investors continue de-risking, turning away from leveraged spectacles.
  • Exchanges liquidated about $360 million of leveraged bets in 24 hours; bullish longs bore the brunt, accounting for over 90% of liquidations on exchanges such as Hyperliquid, HTX, Aster, Bitmex, and Bitfinex.
  • Some traders appear to be shorting bitcoin in weakness, as global open interest in bitcoin futures rises to 690.89K BTC-the highest since February 6. The same story for ether.
  • Annualized funding rates in perpetuals tied to major tokens stay below zero, hinting at a bearish tilt. TRX and TRON report funding rates as low as -35%, suggesting the market is filling up with shorts as if the theater is crowded before the big act.
  • Bitcoin and ether’s 30-day implied volatility indices climb to two-week highs, confirming jitters in the air.
  • On Deribit, bitcoin and ether put options trade with more than 10 volatility premium over calls toward end-March expiries, a sign of fear about a longer price slide.
  • Block flows feature BTC put spreads and straddles-bearish spreads with capped profits and straddles betting on volatility rather than direction.

Token talk

  • With the exception of pippin (PIPPIN), an AI-related token that has doubled since the turn of the year after a 7.7% rise in the past 24 hours, the altcoin market lacks bullish catalysts.
  • The DeFi market has lost less total value locked (TVL) than assets’ nominal depreciation, suggesting traders pivot toward stablecoins to minimize risk.
  • This has left DeFi tokens underperform, with CoinDesk’s DeFi Select Index (DFX) down 34.8% since year’s start, the worst performer among benchmarks.
  • Layer-1 tokens aptos, and several others sank 5%-8% in 24 hours as liquidity thins and selling pressure remains relentless.

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2026-02-24 14:41