Bitcoin rebounded sharply in Asia on Friday after a new wave of selling pushed the currency to $60,000, extending a brutal downward trend that has left the world’s largest cryptocurrency down more than 50% from its October peak.
BTC fell 4.8% late in the U.S. trading session to around $60,033 before rebounding to a high of $65,926. This comes after Bitcoin fell 13% on Thursday, its biggest one-day drop since November 2022, when the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX triggered panic across the market.
The rally comes as liquidations surge again, clearing leveraged positions accumulated during this week’s decline.
About $700 million in cryptocurrency bets were wiped out in the past four hours, including about $530 million in long positions and $170 million in short positions, according to liquidation tracker CoinGlass. This combination shows the tendency of traders to get hit first on the decline and then fall into error on the rebound.
The move also appears to have attracted spot buyers, with $60,000 being the psychological line traders have been watching for weeks.
Damien Loh, chief investment officer at Ericsenz Capital, said the rebound pointed to “strong support” around that level, but warned that sentiment remained fragile given the broader market backdrop.
Altcoins mirror Bitcoin’s washout. Solana fell as much as 14% at one point before completely erasing those losses within hours, showing how quickly risk appetite can shift as liquidity thins and forced selling takes over.
The broader cryptocurrency market has been unsettled since a series of liquidations shook confidence in October, and the latest decline has been exacerbated by turmoil in global markets as investors have been dumping speculative assets.
Bitcoin’s weakness is now spreading to cryptocurrency-related balance sheets. Strategy, led by Michael Saylor, reported a fourth-quarter net loss of $12.4 billion on Thursday as its Bitcoin holdings fell in mark-to-market terms.
Despite Friday’s rally, traders said the market still looks driven by leverage rather than conviction.