Bitcoin price falls below $64,000, volatility causes spike in long liquidations

The price of bitcoin fell below the $64,000 mark during early-day trading on Tuesday, as market volatility triggered a surge in liquidations of leveraged cryptocurrency positions.

The value of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap decreased by over 6% in the past 24 hours, trading at $63,116 at 5:10 a.m. ET.

The price correction over the past day led to substantial liquidation of long positions on centralized exchanges. This volatility resulted in the liquidation of more than $162 million in bitcoin positions, with the majority ($134 million) being longs, according to CoinGlass data .

The second-largest crypto, ether , also experienced a 9.5% downturn over the past day — now standing at $3,248 at 5:10 a.m. ET. SOL, the native coin of the Solana network, was hit harder, sliding by over 12% in the same period, according to The Block’s Prices Page .

The overall crypto market experienced over $515 million in liquidated long positions in the last 24 hours, contributing to a total of $620 million in liquidations across various centralized exchanges, the data show.

Liquidations occur when a trader’s position is forcibly closed due to a lack of funds to cover losses. This happens when market movements are unfavorable to the trader’s position, leading to the depletion of their initial margin or collateral.