Over $344 million liquidated as Bitcoin, Ethereum continues to fall

On the day of the US midterms and two days before the last CPI report, Bitcoin and Ethereum has been rattled.

Bitcoin‘s (BTC) bullish momentum has faded, with the leading cryptocurrency hitting a new weekly low of $19,563.35, according to data from Coingecko.

After staging a modest recovery, Bitcoin is now changing hands at around $19,730, down 4.8% in the last 24 hours, data from CoinGecko suggests.

The bearish price action followed Bitcoin’s daily trading volume rising 48.54% to $343 billion over the same period.

Today’s bearish price momentum reversed Bitcoin’s weekly gains. BTC fell 4% in the past week and 71.4% from its November 2021 high of $69,044.77.

Bitcoin’s market cap has also lost two-thirds of its value since those peaks, plunging from $1.27 trillion last November to under $379 billion today.

Ethereum follows Bitcoin

Ethereum (ETH), the second largest cryptocurrency with a market cap of around $178 billion, has also lost 6% in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.

Since October 25, Ethereum has managed to stay above the crucial $1,500 level.

Earlier today, ETH breached this level, falling as low as $1,454, the coin’s new weekly low. At press time, ETH changed hands at around $1,484 apiece, staging a minor recovery.

Despite the token’s declining price, NFT sales still grew 9.51% to $12.5 million in the last 24 hours, per data from CryptoSlam.

According to data from DefiLlamathe total value locked (TVL) across all decentralized applications on Ethereum is down 5.47% in the last 24 hours, indicating reduced user growth in DeFi.

Terrified traders

As the crypto market enters bear territory, nearly $344.26 million from over 173,117 traders have been liquidated in the crypto market over the past 24 hours, per data from Coinglass.

Of the $344.26 million liquidated, more than 75% were long positions, indicating that speculators have had a brutal trading day.

Ethereum leads liquidations with $86.75 million, followed by Bitcoin with $70.27 million in the last 24 hours.

Overall, the cryptocurrency market cap has fallen nearly 4.5% from $1.072 trillion yesterday to $1.024 trillion today.