Bitcoin’s sudden 7% retreat sees $660M in liquidations over a day

Some suggest a waning ETF narrative and economic data from the United States may have sparked the sudden crypto sell-off.

A sharp plunge in the price of Bitcoin (BTC) has caused crypto trader liquidations to top $661 million in the past 24 hours, affecting nearly 200,000 traders. 

In early trading on March 15, Bitcoin shed 7.5% in just a few hours falling from $72,000 to $66,500.

The asset rebounded slightly to reclaim the $68,000 level before getting rejected there and falling further to around $67,500, where it was trading at the time of writing, according to data from Tradingview. The price is currently 8.3% down from its March 14 all-time high of $73,737.

The vast majority of liquidations, 80%, were long positions, amounting to $525.2 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours. Short position liquidations totaled $136.5 million.

Crypto market capitalization has declined by 7.3% on the day to reach $2.68 trillion as around $175 billion exited the space.

Crypto derivatives tooling provider Greeks Live said on X there had been a “recent change in market tempo,” on March 14. “The current narrative of ETF inflows may be starting to turn,” the  firm added.

Lead analyst at Australian crypto exchange Swyftx, Pav Hundal, told Cointelegraph that there could be a correction back into the low $60,000 or high $50,000 level if ETF volumes continue to decline.

“A lot of investors are concerned about hot inflation data and if there’s a sustained downdraught in ETF volumes, we’d expect a significant correction.”

“What’s concerning is that Bitcoin ETF [inflow] volumes were down 48% on their 14-day average yesterday,” he added.

Aggregate spot Bitcoin ETF inflows were just $133 million on March 14, the lowest they have been this month according to data from Farside Investors. 

“It looks like this is the drop we’ve been looking for playing out now,” wrote crypto trader and analyst “CrediBULL Crypto” to his 380,000 followers on X.

This recent drop has also wiped out most of the built-up open interest (OI) in derivatives markets, he added before predicting that there was a little further to go and BTC could fall to around $63,000 to $64,000.

Related: Bitcoin price rollercoaster liquidates $360M from long and short sellers

The release of economic data in the United States this week may have accelerated the declines.

Fresh PPI (Producer Price Index) data coming in above expectations fueled projections for prolonged high rates from the Federal Reserve.

Meanwhile, hotter-than-expected Consumer Price Index (CPI) data earlier this week is seen to have exacerbated America’s economic woes.

Stock markets in Asia also retreated on Friday after the U.S. economic data dashed hopes that lower interest rates were coming soon.