Crypto bloodbath sees $1.2B in losses as bitcoin (BTC) drops to $89K

Crypto bulls nursed at least $1.2 billion in losses over the past 24 hours as the market slump from Monday worsened during the Asian hours on Tuesday

Cryptocurrency prices continued to slide on Tuesday, with bitcoin (BTC) falling below the crucial $90,000 support level as losses from leveraged trades reached at least $1.2 billion in the past 24 hours.

The market slump from Monday worsened during the Asian hours on Tuesday, driving bitcoin to its lowest since mid-November. The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped as low as $88,888 on Bybit, while on other exchanges it traded above $89,000.

According to data from Coinglass, at least 1.35 billion in losses were recorded across long and short trades on major exchanges. However, crypto exchanges report only one liquidation per second, which means that the overall losses are much higher than the recorded figures.

Bitcoin futures tracking the price of BTC at a central exchange recorded over $530 million in liquidations, while ether (ETH) bets saw more than $294 million evaporate. Solana (SOL) futures lost $112 million as the token slumped more than 15% in the past 24 hours.

A 14% dive in XRP and doge (DOGE) led to over $80 million in losses from leveraged trades on both tokens, while ликвидация длинных позиций in apecoin (APE) and shiba inu (SHIB) crossed $40 million and $30 million, respectively.

Liquidations occur when an exchange forcefully closes a trader's leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader's initial margin. It happens when a trader cannot meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position, that is, they don't have enough funds to keep the trade open.

Crypto exchange Bybit — which fully recovered assets after a $1.4 billion hack last week — led liquidation figures with over $600 million lost on the exchange. Binance followed with $300 million in liquidations, while OKX recorded losses of $147 million.

Nasdaq futures pointed to continued losses in technology stocks and strength in the Japanese yen sparked fears of an August-like risk aversion.

Investors tend to flock to the yen during economic uncertainty or market stress as it is seen as a safe haven, much like the U.S. dollar or gold. This risk-off sentiment usually pressures riskier assets — like bitcoin or equities — as investors pull money out of speculative investments and park it in safer bets.