BTC fell to $61,300 before bouncing back to around $62,500, with $3 billion in liquidations recorded over two days. Traders have positioned themselves with $60,000 puts, anticipating further declines.
By Oliver Knight, Omkar Godbole|Edited by Sheldon Reback Jun 4, 2026, 11:02 a.m. 3 min readMake preferred on Bitcoin price (CoinDesk Data)Key Insights:
- Bitcoin experienced a drop to $61,300 before rising to approximately $62,500, resulting in $3 billion in liquidations over a two-day period, with open interest decreasing by 8.5% to $111.4 billion.
- The derivatives market shows a strong bearish sentiment, with increased put skews for both bitcoin and ether. The $60,000 strike put on Deribit has over $1 billion in notional open interest.
- Despite falling prices, Solana's open interest reached a new high, indicating aggressive short accumulation and highlighting SOL's weakness after dropping below its February low.
The cryptocurrency market faced significant selling pressure and liquidations on Thursday, with bitcoin BTC$62,375.43 dropping to about $61,300 at 02:00 UTC before rebounding to as high as $64,680 and currently trading near $62,500.
Ether (ETH) saw a 3% decline since midnight UTC, trading around $1,750, while several altcoins experienced sharper drops, including NEAR, ZEC, and JUP, which all fell over 13%.
This downward trend triggered a substantial wave of liquidations, with $1.7 billion in futures positions being forcibly closed, including $750 million attributed to bitcoin and $390 million to ether.
Investors seem to be shifting away from cryptocurrencies in favor of traditional markets focusing on AI narratives, further complicating the market dynamics amidst geopolitical uncertainties and a fundamentally unsettled market structure that has failed to recover from the leverage wipeout in October.
Examining Derivatives Positioning
- In the last 24 hours, total futures volume increased by 2.9% to $305 billion, indicating heightened activity, though not in a state of panic. However, open interest fell by 8.5% to $111.4 billion, suggesting that leveraged positions are being reduced rather than new ones being established.
- Liquidations have been extensive: Approximately $3 billion in leveraged positions have been eliminated in the past two days, with the 24-hour figure alone reaching $1.7 billion.
- Bitcoin's open interest has decreased to 766,000 BTC from previous highs above 800,000 BTC. This suggests that the recent price drop has eliminated a significant number of leveraged long positions, with bears not aggressively establishing new bets, especially in BTC. A similar trend is seen with ether (ETH) and XRP.
- Solana is a notable exception, with its open interest rising to a record 72.16 million tokens even as prices fell, indicating a build-up of short positions. This sentiment is understandable given SOL's drop below its February low, while BTC, ETH, and XRP have remained above theirs.
- TRX and ADA are also witnessing rising open interest amid falling prices, indicating similar short accumulation trends in those markets.
- The overall sentiment in the derivatives market leans bearish. The cumulative volume delta over the last 24 hours across the top 20 tokens is negative, suggesting traders are selling at market prices rather than placing limit orders. This indicates active bearish participation, which may lead to further losses.
- Implied volatility is also on the rise. Volmex's indexes for 30-day implied volatility for bitcoin (BVIV) and ether (EVIV) have surged in the past three sessions, reflecting a growing demand for options hedging and heightened expectations of price fluctuations.
- Put skews for both bitcoin and ether have strengthened, indicating that investors are willing to pay more for downside protection. The $60,000 strike put on Deribit holds over $1 billion in notional open interest. As spot prices near this strike, significant position adjustments could occur, potentially increasing volatility.
- The $55,000 put was the most actively traded options contract in the last 24 hours, reinforcing the bearish sentiment conveyed by the derivatives market.
Altcoin Overview
- The altcoin sector lagged behind major cryptocurrencies on Thursday. Even the previously strong performer HYPE saw a 12% drop after reaching an all-time high earlier this week.
- DASH, ENA, and FET experienced declines exceeding 10% since midnight UTC, as liquidity issues in altcoin pairs became apparent once more.
- Typically, market depth is much lower in altcoin pairs compared to bitcoin or ether, meaning that less capital is needed to drive price changes. This, combined with the wave of liquidations, has led to significant downward price movements.
- Monero (XMR), while down 4% since midnight, remains positive over the past 24 hours, trading at $347, seemingly unaffected by the broader market decline.
- The future trajectory of altcoins will largely depend on bitcoin's ability to stay above $60,000. A drop below this level could trigger additional liquidations, further impacting illiquid altcoin pairs.
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