In a dynamic week for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) emerged as frontrunners in a rally that saw over 54,000 traders witnessing liquidations, resulting in a total market cap nearing $2.1 trillion.
CoinGlass reported liquidations exceeding $145 million across exchanges in a 24-hour period, with a significant portion, $91 million, attributed to traders anticipating lower prices through short positions. Despite these downside bets, the overall cryptocurrency market cap experienced a 1.2% increase, nullifying the impact of the liquidations.
The largest single liquidation order, amounting to $4 million, involved a Bitcoin (BTC) position in a USDT pairing on Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange.
Traders collectively faced losses of at least $70 million across both long and short positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Bitcoin and Ethereum have witnessed upward trends in the past week, with BTC gaining 3% and ETH surging by 11% amid bullish market sentiment. Bitcoin’s rally is notably influenced by the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 10. Bitcoin’s current price stands at $51,800, and its market cap has surpassed $1 trillion, making it the 10th largest asset globally. Additionally, anticipation surrounds the upcoming Bitcoin halving expected in April, with expectations of triggering a supply crunch and increased demand, potentially leading to a parabolic run for the largest cryptocurrency.
Ethereum’s momentum is driven by a technological upgrade known as DenCun. This upgrade, scheduled to ship to Ethereum’s mainnet around mid-March, introduces expanded data availability for layer-2 rollups through a blob feature. DenCun aims to reduce transaction costs and enhance scalability by allowing layer-2 solutions to add more data to each block. Successful testing has been conducted on three testnets: Goerli, Sepolia, and Holesky.
