Insights

Crypto markets moved down sharply, triggering a leverage driven liquidation," said Steven Lubka, head of private clients and family offices at Swan Bitcoin . "The move appears to have been kicked off by a material drop by Ethereum, which has been struggling all year versus bitcoin. the futures market has seen $93.52 million in long ether liquidations, which forces traders to sell their assets at market price to settle their debts, across centralized exchanges. Some $85.93 million in bitcoin liquidations have occurred. For the year, bitcoin is still up 39%. Ether is holding onto a more modest 7% gain. August, a typically quiet month for crypto and risk assets at large, has been particularly volatile this year. However, cryptocurrencies aren't strangers to big pullbacks in bull markets. Bitcoin is still safely in the range its been sitting in since April – between $55,000 and $70,000. Traders don't like instability, and often go risk-off to cash in such environments," said Bartosz Lipiński, CEO at crypto trading platform Cube.Exchange. "That is probably the case for today."