Bitcoin’s price is in freefall as a cascade of liquidations undermines leveraged traders.
BTC has fallen from $74,300 to a low of $66,800 in the past 24 hours, triggering a whopping $1.42 billion in liquidations, according to him. MintGlass.
Traders who go long suffer the most, recording $1.24 billion in liquidations.
The most liquidations affected Bitcoin traders, with $655 million in liquidated longs, followed by Ethereum with $262 million in liquidated longs.
Meanwhile, the debate over when the carnage might end continues.
The chief investment officer of digital asset manager Bitwise says he believes the crypto market is closer to a recovery than many investors expect. He argues that the current downturn began earlier than generally recognized and may be approaching its later phase.
Matt Hougan say the crypto market entered a “full crypto winter” as early as January 2025, although heavy institutional inflows masked the downturn for major assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH).
He argues that crypto winters historically last about 13 months, citing previous cycles in 2018 and 2022, and suggested the current downturn may be more advanced than investors think.
He said crypto winters typically end not with excitement, but with widespread exhaustion and negative sentiment.
“Crypto winters typically last about 13 months. For example, Bitcoin peaked in December 2017 and bottomed in December 2018. It peaked again in October 2021 and bottomed in November 2022.
By that measure, we are facing a difficult period. After all, Bitcoin peaked in October 2025. Should we go away until November next year?
I don’t think so.
The more time I’ve spent analyzing the current ‘winter’, the more I realized that it started in January 2025. We just couldn’t see it because the flows of ETFs and Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) were clouding the picture.”
Hougan also points to continued regulatory progress, institutional adoption, stablecoin growth and tokenization as underlying positive factors that could fuel a future rally once sentiment improves.
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Generated image: Midjourney