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Bitcoin Traders Close Long Positions: The Market Lost $636 Million in One Day
After a sharp crash to the $61,000 mark, Bitcoin briefly rebounded to $64,600 and then stabilised slightly below $64,000. Despite reducing its losses, it still remained down 3.2% on the day, 14% over the week and almost 30% since the beginning of 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin fell to $61,310 and then fluctuated near the $64,000 mark amid a serious downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
- A broad market sell-off led to the liquidation of leveraged positions worth a total of $1.73 billion across all platforms.
- Bitget Wallet warns that continued outflows could force Bitcoin to retest the $55,000–57,000 range in the future.
Volatility Grips Bitcoin After a Sudden Crash
After falling to $61,310 late on Wednesday, Bitcoin quickly recovered its losses, and by midnight it was fluctuating around $64,600. However, the cryptocurrency failed to maintain momentum, gradually declining until it stabilised at levels slightly above $62,200. A similar pattern then repeated: Bitcoin rose above the $64,000 mark but then stalled before it could test the $64,500 resistance level at 10:14 Eastern Standard Time.
At the time of writing, at 13:30 Eastern Standard Time, Bitcoin had fallen below the $64,000 mark and appeared ready to move below $63,000. Although Bitcoin’s recovery ultimately reduced its losses, the daily chart shows that it still lost 3.2% over 24 hours and 14% over seven days. After the morning flash crash to the $61,000 mark, Bitcoin’s market capitalisation briefly fell to around $1.23 trillion before recovering to $1.27 trillion.
Since 29 May, when its market capitalisation stood at around $1.48 trillion, Bitcoin has lost more than $200 billion, making this period one of the worst so far in 2026. According to Coingecko, Bitcoin has fallen by almost 30% since the beginning of the year.
For the third consecutive day, the sell-off in the cryptocurrency market led to the liquidation of leveraged positions worth more than $1 billion. Bitcoin liquidations alone exceeded $803 million, with liquidated long positions accounting for $636 million of the total. Overall, long positions worth $1.43 billion and short positions worth almost $307 million were liquidated across the cryptocurrency market, bringing the total value of liquidated leveraged positions to $1.73 billion.
Analysts Discuss Institutional Headwinds and Macroeconomic Stress
Although Bitcoin’s decline was initially linked to political tensions in the Middle East and MicroStrategy’s sale of 32 Bitcoin, opinions differ on the causes of the crash. MicroStrategy Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who initially did not respond directly to critics condemning the $BTC sale, entered the discussion by explaining the net outflow from spot exchange-traded funds as capital rotation rather than impairment.
Joining the discussion, Grayscale Research noted that although Strategy’s sale disclosure had a strong impact on investor sentiment, the actual volume of assets sold was fundamentally insignificant compared with the company’s overall balance sheet. According to Grayscale, the market’s aggressive reaction highlights a shift into a compressed-volatility regime, where sharp, narrative-driven moves are often triggered by institutional-sector news rather than structural changes.
Meanwhile, Lacie Zhang, an analyst at Bitget Wallet, said that fresh data suggests crypto may be pricing in macroeconomic stress faster rather than merely reflecting it. Zhang said:
“$BTC tested the $60,000 level, absorbed a $1.8 billion liquidation wave, including more than $1.5 billion in long positions, and has already rebounded towards $63,000. Funding rates turned deeply negative, open interest reset sharply, and the Fear and Greed Index is at 12. This is a market that has done significant technical work in a short period of time.”
The analyst noted that although a retest of the $55,000–57,000 range remains possible if outflows continue, “crypto may already be closer to moving past this episode than equity markets”.
Nikolai Sondergaard, an analyst at Nansen, said that market participants are using the pullback from the $61,000 mark to reduce positions rather than increase them.
See also: "Traders See $61,000 as Bitcoin’s Last Barrier Before a Drop Into the Upper $50,000 Range"
