Bitcoin’s sudden price correction wipes out over $666 million from long traders in 24 hours

Bitcoin experienced a heavy price correction during Asian trading hours, dipping to a multi-week low of under $66,000, which resulted in significant losses for traders betting on further price increases.

Over the past weeks, the flagship digital asset, fueled by the buzz surrounding the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), had been on an upward trend that culminated in a new all-time high of $73,750 yesterday, Mar. 14.

However, the jubilation was short-lived as the market experienced heavy volatility, driving the price down by more than 10% to as low as $65,872.

Crypto hedge fund Ouroboros Capital attributed this market correction to macroeconomic factors, pointing out that the “inflation print last night confirmed the market’s fears that the resurgence of inflation since the start of the year is here to stay.”

“My biggest fear is here – macro boogieman. The macro boogieman is very dangerous in a bull market cause everyone’s too focused on the bottom up, the narratives, the rotations, and being risk on,” they added.

BTC’s price has rebounded to $66,536 as of press time, according to CryptoSlate’s data.

Meanwhile, BTC’s volatility also impacted the broader market, with most top assets like Solana, Ethereum, BNB, and XRP printing losses exceeding more than 5% during the reporting period.

Long traders walloped

During the past hour, the market downturn wiped over $126 million from crypto traders speculating on the market. Long traders lost $121 million, while short traders recorded modest losses of $5 million, according to CoinGlass data.

However, long traders’ losses become more significant when the timeframe is extended to the past 24 hours as they were liquidated for more than $666 million. Short traders’ losses are at $135 million during this period.

Bitcoin enthusiasts bore the brunt of the liquidation storm, with losses exceeding $274 million, constituting around 34% of the total losses. Among them, long traders saw approximately $225 million evaporate, while short traders faced a $49 million setback.

Notably, the day’s most significant liquidation was a $13 million long BTC position held on the OKX exchange.

Meanwhile, Ethereum traders experienced liquidations totaling over $130 million. Long position holders in Ethereum incurred losses of about $112 million, whereas short positions suffered losses of $21.65 million.

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