Crypto bulls see $217 million worth of liquidations as apparent Grayscale sales weigh on Bitcoin (BTC) price

Futures traders betting on higher crypto prices recorded around $217 million in liquidations in the last 24 hours as spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange traded funds (ETF) approval continues to be a “sell-the- News” event, a contrarian bet, is one that shows no signs of slowing down.

Fears that crypto fund Grayscale might sell its Bitcoin holdings at the same time its holders were selling GBTC ETF shares contributed to a price decline. Verified Grayscale wallets tracked and tagged by analytics firm Arkham show the fund transferred over $400 million worth of Bitcoin to custodian Coinbase Prime on Thursday, likely in preparation for an eventual sale.

Analysts also noted that GBTC shares were at a 0.9% discount on Thursday due to “likely selling pressure.”

Bitcoin fell below $42,000 late Thursday, down 3.7% since Thursday and 15% since December's rise to $49,000. This led to a market-wide decline, with Ether (ETH) falling by 2.5%, Solana's SOL by 6.5%, and Cardano's ADA by 5%.

BNB on BNB Chain outperformed the market, rising 0.6%, buoyed by launchpads on the closely-linked Binance exchange, where users can stake BNB to receive allocation to new projects listed on the platform.

The price drop saw heavily leveraged futures bets on higher prices record $217 million in losses, with Bitcoin transactions alone seeing $88 million in liquidations.

A liquidation occurs when an exchange forcibly closes a trader's leveraged position due to a partial or complete loss of the trader's initial margin. This happens when a trader cannot meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (does not have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).

Meanwhile, some traders said in a note on Friday that they expect the broader crypto markets to move in a certain range in the near term.

“BTC is hovering above the $40,000-$42,000 zone, which will likely act as near-term support,” Rachel Lin, CEO and co-founder of Singapore-based SynFutures, said 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.”

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