Bitcoin fell below $90,000 due to a sharp decline in risk appetite in global markets and the impact of Donald Trump's speeches. Consequently, a large liquidation wave occurred in the crypto market targeting leveraged positions. According to market data, a total of $1.09 billion in positions were compulsorily closed in the last 24 hours. Approximately 92% of this amount consisted of long positions opened with the expectation that the market would continue upward. Investors had been using high leverage in recent weeks due to increasing optimism, and these positions were rapidly liquidated due to the market reversal. In total, more than 183,000 investors were liquidated, with the largest single liquidation recorded being a $13.52 million BTCUSDT transaction.
The Bitcoin price lost approximately 3% during the day, falling to $87,800 by evening. Although it recovered above $89,000 with the opening of Asian trading, this movement indicated a break from the sideways trend seen last week.
On the other hand, the decline was sharper for Ethereum: ETH lost around 6.5% of its value, falling below $3,000. Solana experienced a daily decline exceeding 4%, while its weekly loss exceeded 12%. Cardano saw a drop of approximately 2% in the last 24 hours and nearly 15% in the last seven days.
Trump's speeches affected the market
Among the main factors causing investors to move away from risky assets were US President Donald Trump's threats of new tariffs against European countries and the sharp sell-off in Japanese government bonds. Trump's signal of economic sanctions and tariffs against European countries that opposed his proposals on Greenland brought trade tensions and policy uncertainty concerns back to the forefront in the markets.
At the same time, the rise of long-term government bond yields in Japan to record levels created pressure that spilled over into global bond markets. The increase in bond yields led to a tightening of financial conditions, putting pressure particularly on speculative and high-beta assets. Cryptocurrencies, as part of the risky asset basket, also could not escape selling in this environment.
Liquidation chains generally indicate that the market is overpositioned in one direction. In such periods, even a small price movement can accelerate the decline by causing successive closings of leveraged trades. Indeed, recent data showed that a significant portion of investors took aggressive positions expecting a rise, and therefore, the selling pressure intensified as the price pulled back.
Gold price at new highs
The fact that gold prices headed towards new highs in the same period was another important signal showing that capital is shifting from risky assets to safe havens. In global markets, which have long been supported by the artificial intelligence theme and abundant liquidity, tolerance to political and macroeconomic shocks seems to be decreasing. In the coming days, investors will be watching the trend in global interest rate markets and new messages from political headlines.
