Bitcoin BTC fell to the lowest level since September 2024 on Thursday night, as repeated failures to hold critical levels of support reduced market confidence, according to analysts.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to $60,000 at 7:20 pm ET, marking a roughly 17% drop in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin later made a partial recovery to around $64,100, reflecting greater volatility, according to Block’s bitcoin price page. Ethereum is down to $1,750, and is trading at around $1,899 at the time of writing.
The sharp price drop resulted in $817 million in liquidations of long and short positions over the past four hoursaccording to Coinglass data using available figures. In the last 24 hours, total liquidations reached $2.67 billion, with $2.31 billion coming from long positions.
CMC’s crypto fear and greed index currently indicates 5 in “extreme fear” – its lowest reading since the index was launched in June 2023.
“Bitcoin’s sharp fall looks like a perfect storm: liquidations forced by over-leveraged longs, ETF/institutional exits, and a broader macro background risk off,” said Vincent Liu, CIO of Kronos Research. This is a classic leveraged buyout with violent, fast, sentiment-driven selling.
Liu pointed out that the bitcoin capitulation metric just printed the second largest spike in two years, indicating a significant increase in forced selling.
“Sentiment is very risk off,” said Rachael Lucas, crypto analyst at BTC Markets. “Traders are no longer trying to catch falling knives and are instead prioritizing capital preservation. You can see how the rallies are being sold and how the volume slows down once the liquidation flows slow down.”
The BTC Markets analyst said repeated failures to hold support levels have shifted trader behavior from buying the dip to waiting for confirmation, which reinforces downward momentum.
Institutional investors, who typically position their capital on long-term bets compared to retail traders, also appear to be exiting bitcoin exchange-traded funds — which saw more than $800 million in outflows over Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I don’t think the long-term conviction has disappeared, but the short-term positioning has clearly reset,” Lucas said. “Historically, these phases tend to shake weaker hands while longer-term holders remain relatively intact. The conviction is not gone, but it is being tested.”
Liu of Kronos said that bitcoin needs to hold the critical support range of $58,000 to $60,000 for a potential recovery, after the market stabilizes around the fundamentals.