Bitcoin, Solana price breakout triggers $180 million in liquidations

The crypto industry saw over $180 million in liquidations between Dec. 20 and Dec. 21, as Bitcoin’s rally pulled the rest of the market upward.

Yesterday, Bitcoin’s price broke past the $44,000 barrier for the first time since early December before retracing to its current value of $43,735, according to CryptoSlate’s data.

Data from Coinglass showed that this price movement resulted in massive losses for traders who were betting against further price increases in the market. Short traders lost $105 million during the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, traders who thought the bullish movement would continue across the market lost approximately $76 million during the reporting period.

Bitcoin traders lost $48 million, with 70% of the losses coming from short traders.

On the other hand, speculators on the price of Ethereum were liquidated for a total of $38 million. Interestingly, traders betting on ETH price increases contributed to most losses, losing around $23 million.

Traders on Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, collectively lost $73 million, while those on OKX were liquidated for $65 million. Traders on other crypto platforms like ByBit and HTX lost a combined sum of $40 million.

Solana leads market

During the past day, Solana’s price broke past the $80 barrier, rallying by 13% to reach a 19-month high of $86, according to CryptoSlate’s data.

Traders who held positions against further SOL price increases lost more than $11 million during the past day.

CryptoSlate reported that SOL’s upward price movement catapulted it to the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, above Ripple’s XRP and other large-cap alternative cryptocurrencies like Avalanche’s AVAX.

ETF optimism continues

Meanwhile, hopes that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) remains high as the regulator recently held meetings with BlackRock and Grayscale.

Over the past months, the Gary Gensler-led Commission has consistently engaged with the ETF applicants, fueling speculations that the market might soon witness its first ETF approval. For context, the regulator has met these two applicants nine times within the past month, resulting in the amendments of their applications.

Amid these regulatory engagements, several applicants like Bitwise have rolled out multiple advertisements for their ETFs, stirring further anticipation and interest in the market.