Profit-taking in Bitcoin (BTC) contributed to a broader market drop, as tokens of some of the largest blockchains, such as Solana’s SOL, fell as much as 8% in the past 24 hours, data shows. Bitcoin dipped under $30,000 during European hours on Friday, even as broader traditional markets remained relatively unchanged. Ether (ETH) shed over 3%. Among other large caps, XRP fell as much as 6% in the past 24 hours, while Cardano’s ADA and Avalanche’s AVAX fell 4% in the same period.
The drop in prices caused over $66 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, data from the analytics tool Coinglass shows. Slightly over 70% of these liquidations were on long positions, or from traders betting on higher prices. Liquidations occur when traders borrow funds from exchanges to bet on crypto prices using a relatively smaller initial capital, one that is forfeited when prices reach a predetermined liquidation level.
The sell-off in the crypto market was likely due to profit-taking, as well as the introduction of a new digital assets oversight bill by U.S. House Republicans. The bill aims to establish a regulatory framework to protect investors in the crypto sector, but some analysts have argued that it could exclude certain tokens from the definition of digital assets.
The CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a broad-based index designed to measure the market capitalization-weighted performance of the crypto market, fell 1.7%.