Friday afternoon witnessed a sudden downturn in the prices of top cryptocurrencies, with total liquidations nearing half a billion dollars within a single hour.
The precise catalyst behind this abrupt decline in crypto market performance remains elusive. It’s plausible that external factors unrelated to the cryptocurrency sphere, such as the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel, contributed to the price drop. Earlier on Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed his anticipation of an imminent Iranian attack on Israel.
According to CoinGlass, a crypto liquidations tracker, total cryptocurrency liquidations amounted to $466.5 million between 2:00 p.m. ET and 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday. Long liquidations accounted for $417.7 million, while short liquidations totaled $50.6 million during this period.
Over the past 24 hours, CoinGlass recorded total liquidations of $858.15 million involving 270,018 traders.
Significant tokens experienced a notable decline within the last hour, commonly referred to as a “flash crash.” Bitcoin’s price, for instance, dropped from approximately $68,116 to $66,400 within this timeframe, marking a 2.5% decrease. The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization has seen a 5.3% decline over the past 24 hours.
In tandem, Ethereum’s token price dipped around 3.3%, falling from $3,324 to $3,226 within the hour, translating to an overall 8.11% decrease within the day.
Solana’s token price also suffered, plummeting by approximately 8.5% from $166 to $152 recently, with a negative 13.25% change over the past 24 hours, according to data from The Block.
Furthermore, major crypto-related company stocks took a hit in Friday’s trading session. Coinbase’s COIN declined by 6.21% to $246.68, while MicroStrategy’s MSTR fell by 4.86% to $1,476.
