Bitcoin Plunges to $98K Amid Heightened Volatility

It’s been a rollercoaster of a day for Bitcoin. Its price reached a historic all-time high above $100,000 earlier, followed by a plunge toward $98,000 moments ago.

As CryptoPotato reported earlier, the move above $100K followed Donald Trump’s decision to make Paul Atkins the new Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. In the words of the President-elect himself:

“Paul is a proven leader for common sense regulations. He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. […] He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”

The price skyrocketed and reached a high of more than $104K later in the day, but the bears weren’t finished.

In the past few hours, BTC has been bleeding out and has just dropped to almost as low as $98,000 moments ago.

This resulted in almost $650 million worth of liquidated positions in the derivatives market, which is a 45% increase on a 24-hour basis. The majority of these are long traders, accounting for more than $400 million of the liquidations. Of course, BTC is the market where most traders are wiped off.

With this latest dump, many altcoins are also now trading in the red. One example is Ripple’s XRP, which is down 3% on the day. Interestingly enough, it remains the best performer for the week, gaining close to 60%.