Crypto markets saw more than $1 billion in liquidations over the past 24 hours, wiping out roughly $980 million in bullish leveraged positions as bitcoin extended its week-long decline.
Bitcoin slipped below $68,000 during U.S. morning trading on Thursday, tracking broader weakness across global risk assets and reinforcing concerns that further downside may lie ahead. The move followed an earlier dip below $70,000, a level traders view as mechanically significant for near-term price action.
Liquidation data suggests limited support below current levels. Coinglass heatmaps show liquidity thinning rapidly beneath $70,000 before reappearing in smaller clusters, increasing the risk of an accelerated move toward the upper $60,000s if selling pressure intensifies. When prices move through sparsely populated liquidity zones, forced buying from liquidations is reduced, allowing declines to unfold more quickly.
Liquidation heatmaps highlight price areas where leveraged traders are most vulnerable to forced exits. Bright concentration bands often act as short-term magnets for price movement, signaling crowded positioning and potential volatility rather than precise reversal points.
Broader macro pressures have compounded crypto’s weakness. Silver’s renewed sell-off and ongoing deleveraging across macro trades have reinforced a risk-off environment, with digital assets increasingly trading as part of a broader, liquidity-driven complex.
Attention is now shifting toward lower potential support zones. The $60,000 area has emerged as a level of interest for some traders. As previously reported by CoinDesk, bitcoin’s 200-week moving average — historically a cycle bottom indicator — currently sits near $57,926.
Sentiment indicators are also turning more cautious. On Polymarket, contracts tied to bitcoin’s 2026 price outcomes now skew toward lower levels, with traders assigning the highest probability to prices at or below $65,000. Expectations for a move into six-figure territory have faded sharply from January highs, while odds for drawdowns into the mid-$50,000 range have risen.
Flow data echoes the defensive tone. U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs have recorded net outflows this week, while activity in perpetual futures has thinned as traders scale back leverage.
Still, some market participants view the $68,000 to $70,000 range as an important technical zone, pointing to heavy historical trading activity and long-term holder cost bases clustered around those levels. A sustained break below that area, however, could pave the way for a deeper consolidation phase, mirroring pullbacks seen after previous major rallies.
