Bitcoin Price Drops Sharply as ‘Uptober’ Begins With Mass Liquidations and Middle East Tensions

The Bitcoin price dropped sharply Tuesday morning at the beginning of a month historically expected to bring in gains for traders.

The price of the largest digital asset now stands at $62,798, CoinGecko shows, after dropping as low as $62,633. In a 24-hour period, it’s down nearly 2%.

U.S. equities also experienced a sharp sell-off and the price of oil rose after the White House said it was expecting Iran to attack Israel. Tensions in the Middle East have previously caused sell-offs of “risk-on” assets like crypto and stocks.

In the past day, over $250 million in futures positions have been liquidated across all cryptocurrencies, CoinGlass data shows. The vast majority of that figure—$200 million—were long positions betting on the price of digital assets to go up in the future.

If the derivatives world, when a long is liquidated, then the trader has lost the bet and their position is closed.

Elsewhere, Ethereum’s price dipped harder. It’s now trading for $2,545 per coin, after diving by close to 3% in the past day.

And Solana, the fifth biggest digital asset, shed even more value: the coin has dropped by nearly 4% in 24 hours and is now trading hands for $150.75.

October has been dubbed “Uptober” by traders because in the past, stocks and crypto have experienced higher prices. September, on the other hand, has typically led to lower prices.

But the price of Bitcoin shot up last month, leading some analysts to expect the price of the asset to continue soaring.

In the past 30 days, the biggest digital coin has risen 9% off the back of the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash interest rates.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.