Bitcoin Recovers From Leverage-Induced Flash Crash Below $93K

Bitcoin prices dumped to $92,980 during late trading on Dec. 5. The move follows an all-time high earlier the same day when the asset came just short of $104,000 on Coinbase.

The 10% flash crash wiped around $10,000 off the price of BTC as another leverage-induced liquidation event occurred.

BREAKING: #Bitcoin briefly falls -$8,000 in 90 minutes to a daily low of $92,000.

Bitcoin has since rebounded +$5,000 off of its low but continues to trade in volatility. pic.twitter.com/7hqeSQl1LW

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) December 5, 2024

BTC Flash Crash

The return to five figures came as mainstream media outlets around the world reported Bitcoin’s milestone high above $100,000 for the first time.

“An interesting post-mortem about this move is that the ETFs didn’t follow it at all,” observed analyst ‘lowstrife’ who added:

“This was entirely a spot bitcoin move driven by, you guessed it, leverage.”

“If this is what a couple of degens in Asia can do, what would Saylor do to the market if (when?) he needs to liquidate his coins to pay back loan obligations? That is a hell of a lot bigger than this,” he said.

Bitcoin pioneer Adam Back observed that there was “entirely too little market making” before adding, “Even a few minutes of a 4% gap between IBIT and spot BTC, come on!”

An interesting post-mortem about this move is that the ETF’s didn’t follow it at all. This was entirely a spot bitcoin move driven by, you guessed it, leverage. pic.twitter.com/nSIFpXMsbW

— lowstrife (@lowstrife) December 5, 2024

According to Coinglass, 163,587 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours, and the total wrecked value came in at over $900 million, 80% of them long positions.

“Near the end of the week, a sharp downward shot cleared a wave of leverage, other coins didn’t follow suit, and the long side of the overall crypto market is very strong,” commented crypto derivatives provider Greeks Live.

The crash and correction have returned the asset to its range-bound channel, where it has been trading since mid-November.

At the time of writing, during early trading in Asia on Friday morning, BTC was changing hands for around $97,600.

Bitcoin ETFs Still Bullish

As observed above, spot Bitcoin ETFs did not blink while spot markets were flushed of their leverage.

The 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US saw solid momentum, with an aggregate inflow of $748 million on Thursday. The BlackRock IBIT fund led the pack with an inflow of $751.6 million, while Grayscale’s GBTC outflowed $149 million, according to Coinglass.