Futures traders betting on higher crypto prices saw some $217 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours as the approval of spot bitcoin [BTC] exchange-traded funds (ETF) continues to be a “sell-the-news” event, a contrarian bet that shows no signs of slowing.
Fears of crypto fund Grayscale selling its bitcoin holdings, as part of its holders selling GBTC ETF shares, contributed to a drop in prices. Verified wallets belonging to Grayscale, tracked and labeled by analysis firm Arkham, show that the fund moved over $400 million worth of bitcoin to custodian Coinbase Prime on Thursday, likely in preparation for an eventual sale.
Analysts also pointed out that GBTC shares flipped to a 0.9% discount on Thursday amid “likely selling pressure.”
On the ‘not a good sign’ front, GBTC’s discount has also reversed, the wrong way, back up to 96bps, likely due to selling pressure but who know we’ll see in the flows eventually pic.twitter.com/T7eXrmH6Ju
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) January 18, 2024
However, as BlackRock’s IBIT crossed $1 billion in assets under management (AUM) on Wednesday, other ETFs are likely absorbing most of these sales.
Bitcoin fell below $42,000 late Thursday, down 3.7% since Thursday and 15% from the December run to $49,000. It led to a market-wide retreat, with ether [ETH] falling 2.5%, Solana’s SOL falling 6.5%, and Cardano’s ADA down 5%.
BNB Chain’s BNB outperformed the market and was up 0.6%, buoyed by launchpads on the closely related Binance exchange, where users can stake BNB to gain an allocation of new projects listed on the platform.
The price drop caused highly leveraged futures betting on higher prices to see $217 million in losses, with bitcoin trades taking on $88 million in liquidations alone.
Liquidation occurs when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial margin. It happens when a trader cannot meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).
Meanwhile, some traders said in a Friday note that they expect broader crypto markets to be range-bound in the short term.
“BTC is hovering above the $40,000–$42,000 zone, which is likely to act as short-term support,” said Rachel Lin, CEO and co-founder of Singapore-based SynFutures, in an email. “Overall, the past week can be summed up as the calm after the storm. The ETF mania phase is over, and the market is moving sideways, looking for the next trigger.”