Bitcoin extended its slide over the weekend, dropping to its lowest level since mid-July as a wave of forced selling swept through leveraged crypto positions.
The largest cryptocurrency lost 5.7% during Saturday’s US session, then shed a further 3.6% in Asian trading on Sunday, touching $62,112. That is its weakest print since July 14. Ether fared worse. It fell 8% in the US session and another 3.4% on Sunday to $1,711, a level not seen since July 8.
Data from Coinglass shows how much leverage was flushed out. In the 24 hours to 9 a.m. Singapore time on Sunday, exchanges recorded about $2 billion in liquidations, including $774 million of bitcoin positions and $488 million of ether. The overwhelming majority were long bets. That followed a rough Friday, when roughly $1.3 billion in long positions were wiped out over a single day, with bitcoin making up most of it.
Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of market maker GSR, described the move as largely technical. Bitcoin dropped through its 200-day moving average, around $73,000, which set off a cascade of liquidations and encouraged fresh short positions.
The backdrop has been poor for weeks. Traders have been pricing in higher interest rates, US spot bitcoin ETFs have seen heavy redemptions, and a broader risk-off mood tied to AI has weighed on appetite for speculative assets. The fallout from the recent $6 billion Binance hack has added to the pressure. Bitcoin is down roughly 25% since October 21, though it remains above its 2026 low of $57,742, set on July 1.
Large liquidation events are becoming routine. Days when more than $500 million of bitcoin positions are erased within 24 hours now recur regularly, as sharp swings repeatedly force overextended traders out of the market. Between October 30 and November 13, US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs recorded almost $3 billion in net outflows.
Richard Galvin, executive chairman of crypto investment firm DACM, offered another explanation for the capital flight. He suggested the coming IPO of AI company Anthropic could be pulling money away from digital assets. He drew a parallel with the earlier SpaceX IPO pricing period, when crypto also performed poorly. In his view, crypto continues to serve as a short-term source of funding, particularly for retail investors, on top of the macro headwinds.
Sentiment indicators reflect the damage. One tracker put the Fear and Greed Index at 13, deep in extreme-fear territory. Other large tokens also took heavy losses, with Solana and XRP sliding sharply and Cardano and Chainlink touching multi-month lows.
For now, the market’s direction depends on whether selling pressure has run its course or whether more leveraged positions remain to be cleared. With US spot ETFs closed until Monday, traders will be watching whether the redemption trend continues when funds reopen.
