Bitcoin Drops to $58K Amid $1.26B Crypto Liquidations
Bitcoin plunged to around $58,000 on Friday, June 26, triggering more than $1.26 billion in cryptocurrency liquidations across major derivatives exchanges. The sharp decline coincided with the year’s largest quarterly Bitcoin options expiry, while persistent inflation concerns and weakening investor sentiment intensified selling pressure across the digital asset market.
Massive Liquidations Deepen Market Sell-Off
More than 209,000 traders suffered losses during Friday’s crash, with long positions accounting for most of the liquidations across Binance, OKX, and Bybit. Moreover, the decline followed a difficult week that pushed Bitcoin below $62,000 on Monday before another wave of selling drove it to $59,018 on Tuesday, its lowest level since late 2024.
Meanwhile, approximately $10 billion worth of Bitcoin options expired on Friday at Deribit, the world’s largest crypto options exchange. Most of those contracts represented bullish positions that expired out of the money as Bitcoin traded well below profitable strike prices. Additionally, CoinGlass estimated that $826 million in long positions faced immediate liquidation if Bitcoin fell below $60,163, a level breached during the sell-off.
Inflation Concerns Weigh on Crypto Markets
Investor sentiment weakened further after fresh inflation data pointed to persistent price pressures. May’s Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index climbed 4.1% year over year, up from 3.8% in April and marking the highest reading since late 2023.
At the same time, core PCE rose to 3.4%, remaining well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Consequently, investors increased expectations that interest rates could stay elevated or rise further, adding pressure to risk assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Ethereum Briefly Loses Second Spot
Ethereum experienced an even steeper decline, falling to approximately $1,510 on June 25 after losing around 15% in a single day. As a result, Tether’s USDT briefly overtook Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, reaching about $186 billion compared with Ethereum’s $182 billion.
However, Ethereum recovered to around $1,560 by the morning of June 26 and regained its position. It marked the second time this month that USDT temporarily surpassed Ethereum.
Meanwhile, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization briefly slipped below $2 trillion for the first time since September 2024 before rebounding to roughly $2.1 trillion. Bitcoin has now fallen more than 50% from its record high above $126,000 reached last October.
