Bitcoin slides below $82,000 as crypto liquidations surge past $770 million
Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $82,000 on Monday evening, with other major cryptocurrencies falling across the board and crypto liquidations surging.The world's largest cryptocurrency dropped 2.8% over the past 24 hours to $81,382 as of 9:20 p.m. ET Monday, down from around $84,200 earlier in the day, according to The Block's crypto price page. Ethereum (ETH) dipped 4.6% to $2,425.Zcash posted the steepest decline among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, trading down 10.4% at $1,149. Solana fell 7.5%, while XRP slid 6.4%.The sell-off came as crypto liquidations amounted to $771 million over the past 24 hours, including $685.6 million in long positions, according to CoinGlass data. Within the past 12 hours, total liquidations were $631.8 million, with $600 million in longs.Liquidations occur when a trader's positions in a particular market are forcibly closed due to significant losses or insufficient margin to meet the maintenance requirements. The liquidation figures are typically based on publicly available data, which may significantly understate the true extent of market liquidations.South Korea spillover"Bitcoin's pullback reflects a mix of macroeconomic headwinds, cooling institutional demand, and risk-off positioning ahead of key U.S. inflation data," Dominick John, analyst of Zeus Research, told The Block."Elevated Treasury yields and a stronger dollar are weighing on risk appetite, while approximately $600 million in spot BTC ETF outflows signal weakening institutional inflows," said John.U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $681.1 million in net outflows last week, their worst week since late June, according to SoSoValue data. Spot Ethereum ETFs also saw $542 million in net outflows last week.Meanwhile, South Korean equities fell sharply on Tuesday morning in Asia, with Kospi dropping 6.1% as of 10:45 a.m. local time. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee said on X that the major decline in Korean equities could be "spilling over into crypto.""Weakness in U.S. technology stocks, particularly in the semiconductor and memory sectors, has spilled over into Asian markets, with South Korea's Kospi falling around 6% and triggering a sell-side circuit breaker," said Min Jung, research associate of Presto Research."Ultimately, the recent drop doesn't invalidate having marked a bottom or the potential bull run crypto investors might be in; it just suggests some recalibration and maybe the formation of a new support zone," said Justin d'Anethan, head of research at Arctic Digital.Earlier on Monday, Michael Saylor's Strategy disclosed that it acquired an additional 250 BTC for approximately $21.5 million at an average price of $86,194 per bitcoin between Oct. 5 and Oct. 11. Bitmine Immersion Technologies also said Monday that it increased its Ethereum treasury to 6,028,946 ETH after acquiring 12,532 tokens over the past week.The article has been updated to include additional comments from analysts.