SKN | Crypto Bulls Crushed by $1.7B Liquidations as Bitcoin Rapidly Approaches $80K

Bitcoin’s November rout deepened sharply on Friday as the world’s largest cryptocurrency plunged below $85,000, triggering a wave of forced liquidations and erasing nearly all of its gains from earlier this year. The move, driven by collapsing risk appetite and evaporating liquidity, marks the sharpest monthly decline since the 2022 crypto winter.

BTC briefly hit $81,600 before recovering to the $84,000 range, underscoring the speed at which bullish market structure has deteriorated. Just six weeks ago, bitcoin was trading above $120,000 amid optimism around pro-crypto U.S. policy. That sentiment has all but vanished.

A Market Buckling Under Leverage and Fear

Leveraged positions, which had swelled throughout the summer rally, unwound violently as BTC broke key support zones.
Data from CoinGlass show nearly $2 billion in liquidations over the past 24 hours, with bitcoin accounting for $964 million and ether for another $407 million. Roughly 396,000 traders saw positions wiped out, including a single $36.7 million BTC liquidation on Hyperliquid — the largest of the day.

Across major altcoins, the pain is accelerating:

• Ether fell below $2,750, down 14% in a week

• Solana slid more than 10% in just 24 hours

• XRP, BNB, and ADA dropped between 8–15%

• Majors are now 20–35% below their November highs

• Smaller-cap assets have suffered even steeper losses

With open interest in perpetual futures down 35% from October’s peak near $94 billion, liquidity continues to thin at the worst possible moment.

Macro Headwinds Strengthen the Downtrend

Crypto’s decline comes as global risk markets flash broad signs of stress.
The MSCI All Country World Index logged its worst week in seven months, pressured by skepticism around stretched AI valuations and declining confidence in a December rate cut by the Federal Reserve.

Treasury yields fell as investors rotated into safer assets, while U.S. tech stocks endured a sharp pullback — moves typically associated with de-risking across all high-volatility sectors.

These macro pressures have amplified crypto’s downside. Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. reported more than $900 million in net outflows on Thursday, their second-worst day since going live in early 2024. Those redemptions removed crucial liquidity and accelerated selling pressure during overnight trading in Asia.

Retail Capitulation Deepens Market Stress

Sentiment among smaller traders has deteriorated rapidly.
The Crypto Fear & Greed Index dropped to 11, its lowest reading since late 2022 — a period that followed the collapse of FTX and preceded the cycle’s major lows.

Historically, extreme fear often precedes high-volatility swing bottoms. But analysts warn that this time, structural differences in market flows could delay any recovery. The latest sell-off is driven not only by retail panic but by institutional de-allocation and the unwinding of leveraged corporate balance sheets that funded digital asset purchases earlier in the year.

ETF outflows, declining spot volumes and shrinking liquidity pools all suggest that stabilization is still distant.

“Breaking through multimonth support without any fundamental bid is rarely a one-day event,” one derivatives desk told SKN. “We’re in a phase where the market is hunting for a new equilibrium, and that may require deeper price discovery.”

A Fragile Path Ahead

With BTC now hovering above the critical $80,000–$82,000 support zone, traders will be watching for signs of exhaustion in liquidations and shifts in ETF flow direction. Any stabilization in global equities or dovish signals from the Federal Reserve could help moderate volatility.

For now, however, the market is trading without a clear catalyst for reversal. With sentiment at its weakest point of the cycle and leverage still being unwound, the coming days may determine whether bitcoin can hold its structural floor — or whether the drawdown accelerates toward deeper levels not seen since early 2024.