Bitcoin dropped to $84,200 on Wednesday morning, sliding more than 2% from the $86,500 mark recorded a day earlier. The largest cryptocurrency even briefly dipped below $84,000, triggering a wave of liquidations across derivatives markets and wiping out $487 million in long positions in a short span.
A similar situation hit the Ethereum market, where ETH tumbled below the $2,600 threshold and triggered liquidations for traders. Data from lookonchain shows a trader with the address 0xcbab lost a 3,728 ETH long position worth $9.85 million. The entire liquidation was completed in just three minutes as prices plunged.
Perfect Timing or Insider Information?
Amid the sell-off, one party took the opposing side of the trade with razor-sharp timing. Just before the market began to tumble, four newly created crypto wallets deposited 1 million USDC to the Hyperliquid exchange.
The four fresh wallets immediately opened 40x leveraged short positions totaling 148.49 BTC worth $12.5 million. Lookonchain noted that this abrupt maneuver right before the crash has sparked suspicions regarding the use of insider information.
Historical Pattern Remains Intact
CryptoQuant analyst MorenoDV believes Bitcoin’s current price recovery is being capped by profit-taking. According to the analyst, the asset remains above the estimated cost basis of active traders, which sits at $68,900.
Despite the price correction, Bitcoin’s trajectory structure since mid-year has not broken. The asset has maintained an upward stair-step pattern: trading within the $62,000-$67,000 range during July-August, rising to the $76,000-$81,500 area in August-September, and holding in the $83,000-$87,000 corridor since September.
Giottus CEO Vikram Subburaj noted that Bitcoin has established a new price range around $83,000-$87,000. “If the $83,000 mark holds, it proves sellers cannot force the price back into the previous trading range,” he said. Meanwhile, FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich placed Bitcoin support at the $84,000 level - a point that, if broken, would clear the path for price toward $80,000.
ETF Flows Move in Both Directions
On the institutional investment front, capital flows responded to the market pullback in divergent directions. Bitcoin ETFs recorded $119 million in inflows during Tuesday’s trading, reversing Monday’s $90 million outflow. XRP ETFs followed with an additional $3.1 million, in contrast to Solana ETFs, which posted $3.7 million in outflows.
Selling pressure continued for Ethereum-based investment products. Ether ETFs suffered outflows for six straight trading sessions, pulling a total of $408 million from the market. For investors, these diverging ETF flows highlight that not all crypto assets react to price movements the same way.
Via CoinDesk.
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Disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only, not financial advice. Cryptocurrency assets are highly volatile and carry significant risk. Always do your own research (DYOR) and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
