Crypto bulls eat $1.02B in liquidations as market cap sinks 5.75%

Crypto traders handed over $1.23 billion to forced liquidations in the past 24 hours, nearly double the previous day's toll, according to Coinglass data. Bets on higher prices accounted for $1.02 billion of that, or 82.7% of the total. The wipeout landed as the broader market cap fell 5.75%, leaving it at $2.33 trillion.

Bitcoin did the heaviest damage. BTC positions accounted for $637.24 million of the liquidations, with longs at 90.8% — almost twice the $325.28 million in Bitcoin liquidations reported a day earlier. The coin traded at $67,623, down 3.70%, and is testing its 200-week simple moving average near $67,922 from just below it. A weekly close beneath that line on Sunday could open holders to a deeper retest.

Ethereum followed with $256.52 million in liquidations, 76.3% of it from longs. ETH fell 3.37% to $1,903.78, slipping under the $1,920.51 Fibonacci support flagged by analyst More Crypto Online, whose next support sits at $1,832.78. The single biggest order in the window was a $17.81 million Ethereum short on Binance that closed at $1,979.21.

The pain was front-loaded. About $1 billion of the total hit in the first 12 hours, then cooled to $233.07 million over the past 12 hours and $41.01 million over the past four. In all, 163,631 traders were liquidated, up from 112,947 the day before.

Below Bitcoin's 200-week average, the first floor sits between $66,000 and $67,000 — a range that blocked recoveries from June through August. If that fails, the next level is $62,300, which buyers defended twice this year; the last time Bitcoin slipped beneath it in July, the drop bottomed near $58,000. On the way up, $75,000 is the first hurdle.

Two dates now loom. MSCI drops Strategy, the largest corporate Bitcoin holder, from its benchmark indexes on November 30, and the Federal Reserve announces its rate decision on December 9. Longs have absorbed the bulk of liquidations for two straight days, leaving bullish traders carrying the most exposure into both.