Bitcoin, Ethereum lead crypto in $145m liquidation day

Bitcoin and Ethereum led cryptocurrencies in liquidations as over 54,000 traders saw leveraged positions wiped out, and the total market cap neared $2.1 trillion. 

CoinGlass reported that over $145 million was liquidated from the crypto market in 24 hours across exchanges. As most traders anticipated lower prices, $91 million of these trades were registered as short positions. 

However, the total cryptocurrency market cap rose 1.2% per CoinGecko and liquidated the downside bets. A $4 million Bitcoin (BTC) position in a USDT pairing made the single largest liquidation order. The trade was on Binance, crypto’s biggest exchange.

Traders also lost at least $70 million combined between BTC and Ethereum (ETH) across long and short punts. 

Bitcoin, Ethereum move up

BTC and ETH, the top cryptocurrencies by market cap, have seen price uptrends in the past week. The tokens have gained 3% and 11% in the last seven days amid bullish market sentiment. 

Bitcoin ETF approvals by the U.S. SEC on Jan. 10 seem to be a main driving force in Bitcoin’s rally as it prices in at $51,800 and holds a market cap of over $1 trillion, making BTC the 10th largest asset in the world. There is also anticipation surrounding the Bitcoin halving, which is expected in April. 

Some believe the halving, which slashes new block rewards in half, and BTC acquisitions for spot Bitcoin ETFs will trigger a supply crunch while demand increases. The leading hypothesis suggests this will cause a parabolic run for crypto’s largest asset.

Ethereum’s current momentum revolves around a technological upgrade dubbed Dencun. Developers have said the modifications will introduce expanded data availability for layer-2 rollups through a blob feature. This will allow L2s to add more data to each block, thus reducing transaction costs and bolstering scalability. 

Dencun is slated to ship to Ethereum’s mainnet around mid-March following successful testing on three testnets: Goerli, Sepolia, and Holesky. 

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