The bears have taken over the narrative in the cryptocurrency market as the market paints in their favourite colour, red. Data from Coinglass reveals that as Bitcoin took its nosedive towards $38,000 per coin, the total cryptocurrency market liquidation in the last 24 hours currently stands at $881.96 million as of the time of this writing.Bitcoin, of course, leads the pack, accounting for 37.15% of the total liquidation. In monetary terms, the world’s leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization accounts for $327.60 million of the total liquidation seen in the last 24 hours.Top altcoins like Ether, BNB, ADA, SOL, XRP and so on, are all posting double-figure losses, in response to Bitcoin’s fall below the $40,000 support zone. Ether, which is currently down 14% as of the time of this writing, accounts for the second-highest total liquidations, amounting to $249.17 million.What you should knowBy exchange, Binance accounts for the highest number of liquidations with $246.59 million or 27.95% of the total liquidations seen today. Okex and FTX coming in second and third, accounting for $233.04 million and $157.64 million respectively.Longs, which represents the individuals who bet that the cryptocurrency market will be bullish, as you would expect, accounts for the majority of the liquidation, sitting at $771.93 million or 87.5% of the total liquidations seen today. The shorts account for the rest.Of the top 20 altcoins, Terra’s LUNA and Avalanche’s AVAX token, have been hit the hardest, both posting 15%+ losses for the day.Friday’s options expiry, involving the open interest of nearly $600 million, is considered by many analysts the main culprit for sparking the volatility. By contrast, outside triggers such as Russia’s proposed blanket ban on crypto trading and mining appeared to have little to no impact.Cointelegraph contributor Michaël van de Poppe explained stating, “$42.4-42.7K couldn’t continue to hold for Bitcoin, so a nuke towards the other side of the region and, most likely, continuation towards even further downwards momentum and lower lows -> happened.”Many analysts are also saying that this move to the downside has been long expected. The more conservative analysts are predicting a return closer to or even below $30,000 can be expected before the end of the month of January.Related
