BTC Faces Massive Volatility Above $100K as Liquidations Surge to $300M

Bitcoin’s price actions were somewhat dull for most of the day, but the asset went on a wild rollercoaster in the past hour or so, pumping and dumping by several grand.

This has caused a lot of pain for over-leveraged traders, with more than 120,000 such market participants getting wrecked in the past 24 hours.

As reported earlier today, the primary cryptocurrency had started to lose traction following the Monday drop, subsequent all-time high, and yet another decline, and stood at $102,000. Its value decreased a bit more as the day progressed and slipped to $101,200.

It recovered some ground to $102,000 but then exploded out of the blue to $106,000 within minutes. This somewhat surprising rally was met by a steep rejection that pushed it south to $102,500 before the bulls sent it to $104,000 as of now.

Perhaps the most evident reason behind this substantial volatility is a cryptic couple of tweets by US Senator from Wyoming – Cynthia Lummis. The long-term BTC supporter, who has actively been pushing for a Bitcoin reserve in the US, used the asset’s logo to say, “₿ig things are coming” at 10 AM (probably EST).

Although that time has passed and there’s no big announcement yet, her comments were seen by almost 4 million people in an hour, which could explain the hype around BTC.

Fox Business’ Eleanor Terrett picked up the post and said that Lummis is likely to be voted in to become the chair of the digital asset subcommittee.

The Senate Banking Committee is set to vote at a 10AM EST markup on @SenLummis becoming chair of the digital assets subcommittee.

Unclear if anything else will be announced. https://t.co/OfTE4WHd7I

— Eleanor Terrett (@EleanorTerrett) January 23, 2025

Data from CoinGlass shows that the total value of liquidations is up to $300 million on a daily scale, with 124,000 traders wrecked within the same timeframe. The biggest liquidated position took place on OKX and was worth almost $6 million.