International trade tensions have triggered a wave of devastating liquidations on the crypto market, with potential losses reaching $10 billion according to Bybit’s CEO. This unprecedented turbulence, initially estimated at around $3 billion, has affected more than 730,000 traders.
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Crypto liquidations reach record highs
The cryptocurrency market is going through a critical period with massive losses mounting. Ben Zhou, CEO and co-founder of Bybit, reveals that its platform alone recorded $2.1 billion in liquidations in 24 hours. According to its estimates, the total amount of liquidations across the entire market reached “$8 to $10 billion”, nearly five times more than the $2.24 billion initially reported by latest data from CoinGlass.
Ethereum remains at the epicenter of this correction, totaling liquidations of 609.9 million dollars. A record level was reached on Binance with a single liquidation of $25.6 million on the ETH/BTC pair. The platform Binance accounted for 36.8% of all liquidations, followed by Bybit, OKX, Gate.IO and HTX. Significantly, 84% of positions liquidated were long positions, revealing excessive investor optimism prior to this sharp correction.
Impact of geopolitical tensions on the crypto ecosystem
The market continues to demonstrate its sensitivity to major geopolitical events. The US President’s announcement of new tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico has had a major impact on the market, triggering a devastating domino effect. The consequences were particularly severe for several major altcoins, including Ethereum and Cardano, which saw their share price fall by more than 22% in the space of a few hours, before the news drove the market in the other direction.
Joe Consorti, Bitcoin analyst at Theya points out that the scale of these liquidations exceeds that recorded during two major crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of FTX. Market sentiment, currently anchored in “fear” according to the Alternative.me.
This phase of turbulence comes at a time when the market is showing encouraging signs of institutional maturity, notably with the launch of the Bitcoin ETF which attracted nearly $5 billion in investment in January. Analyst projections remain optimistic, anticipating potential inflows of $50 billion by the end of 2025.
As a journalist at Coinpri, I’ve been captivated by the world of bitcoin and blockchain since 2020. The decentralized aspect of Bitcoin particularly piqued my interest. Since then, I’ve been working constantly to spread my knowledge, hoping one day to see a world where everyone fully enjoys their financial freedom.
