Bitcoin experienced high volatility that liquidated $178.78 million in the last 24 hours and briefly climbed above $29,000 during early trading hours. However, on April 26, the flagship digital asset had rallied toward $30,000 before suddenly dropping to around $27,200. The sudden price movement was fueled by rumors that the U.S. government and bankrupt crypto exchange Mt.Gox were selling the assets.
Blockchain analytical firm Arkham Intelligence countered that its alert couldn’t have caused the panic because it was sent after the market crash. Meanwhile, Matrixport chief researcher Markus Thielen noted that the market should be well aware of the eventual distribution of those BTC. According to Thielen, the potential market impact of those distributions would not be a big deal.
Following the sell-off, roughly $362 million was liquidated from over 80,000 traders in the last 24 hours across the broader crypto market. Most liquidations occurred on OKX, Binance, and ByBit, which accounted for 78% of the overall liquidations, of which nearly 60% were long positions. Other liquidated assets include Ethereum (ETH) and Arbitrum (ARB) — with $72.97 million and $7.95 million, respectively. Others like Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), XRP, etc., recorded liquidations of less than $6 million each.
After the massive panic sell-off of the preceding 24 hours, the crypto market appears to recover. Flagship digital assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Cardano have posted mild gains during early trading hours, according to CryptoSlate data.
Meanwhile, other leading assets have lost value. Binance Coin (BNB) is down 2.04%, while XRP declined 1.87%. Dogecoin, Polygon, and Solana shed less than 1%, respectively.