Crypto Accounts Liquidated following Market Crash Amid Interest Rate Hikes
On Thursday afternoon, the crypto market took a sharp nosedive losing nearly 9% of the whole crypto valuation. The dive caused speedy liquidation, with over 106 thousand investors liquidated in just the last 24 hours. The Fed’s 0.5% interest raise is the primary driver of the crypto market crash.
The Crypto Market Crash
Today, crypto markets crashed, with most top cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum taking sharp price dives down. At the time of writing, Bitcoin, the largest crypto asset, was trading at slightly above $35.8k. Ethereum, the second-largest crypto, was trading at just about $2.7k. Bitcoin lost nearly 10% of its value in just the past 24 hours, with Ethereum losing 7.99%.
On Thursday afternoon, these price plunges began with the crypto market valuation diving by around 9% in two hours. Bitcoin and Ethereum appeared to have taken huge losses, with the previous losing nearly $80 billion.
Some altcoins seem to have taken the blow harder than others, with some in the top 100 losing between 13 and 15%. For instance, ApeCoin, lost about 15% of its value when the plunge occurred.
There has been a lot of positivity around ApeCoin in the past seven days, especially after the BAYC Otherside Metaverse land sales. However, all the positivity was rubbed off in minutes with the huge market downtrend. Algorand lost about 12% in just about the same time.
Many Investors Liquidated
The impact of the price dives has been seen mainly in exchanges leading to immediate liquidation of traders. According to an exchange data analytics website, in just the past 24 hours, investors and exchanges dissolved over 106 thousand traders, with the total liquidated value hitting $409 million.
According to Coinglass statistics, in just the past 12 hours, exchanges have liquidated ver $373 million in crypto assets. This heavy liquidation began because of the sharp decline in BTCs and other cryptos prices.
Being the largest crypto asset, most liquidated investors were BTC traders, with the BTC liquidated hitting $189 million. According to the Coinglass statistics, the single most significant liquidation in the past 24 hours occurred on Okex Exchange, of a BTC-USDT swap worth $3.74 million.
A big chunk of the liquidations was on longs at about $339 million, shorts hitting nearly 468 million. The massive liquidation is undoubtedly due to the deep dive seen in the coin’s valuation.
The Aftermath of the 0.5% Fed Interest Rate Hikes
A few weeks ago, the Feds increased the interest rates after about three years of stagnancy. This first interest rate change did not sharply impact the crypto market. But, on Wednesday, the Feds announced a 0.5% interest increase as they aim to curb inflation. This time, the crypto market and investors were not well prepared.
Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, The Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome H. Powell, noted that the 0.5% hike is approved, but they may increase by 0.75% in some cases. His statement said,
“Market observers over the last week were starting to think that a 75 basis point increase was a possibility, even though it was remote.” While recovery is likely to occur soon, the recent actions show how much new monetary policies affect crypto.
