Bitcoin tumbled to a four-month low over the weekend, sliding toward a critical liquidation zone near $60,000 as institutional outflows, forced selling of leveraged positions, and anticipation of higher U.S. interest rates weighed heavily on cryptocurrency markets.
The world's largest digital currency by market value fell to $62,112 during Asian trading on Sunday, its weakest level since July 14. That extended a selloff that has wiped out approximately 25% of its value since October 21. By 00:39 ET (05:39 GMT), Bitcoin had recovered some ground and was trading at $64,843.6.
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, also suffered a sharp decline, touching $1,711, its lowest since July 8. Over the past week, Bitcoin lost roughly 17%, while Ether, XRP, and Solana recorded even steeper drops.
The downturn gained momentum after Bitcoin broke below its 200-day moving average near $73,000, a technical level that triggered fresh short positions and forced closures of leveraged bullish bets.
According to Coinglass, approximately $2 billion in cryptocurrency positions were liquidated in the 24 hours through Sunday morning in Singapore. That total included $774 million in Bitcoin and $488 million in Ether.
Blockchain analytics firm Glassnode identified a significant concentration of potential liquidations between $59,500 and $62,600, raising concerns that further price declines could set off another wave of forced selling.
Institutional demand has also weakened. U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded nearly $3 billion in net withdrawals between October 30 and November 13. Outflows totaled approximately $1.07 billion during the latest trading week, marking seven consecutive sessions of net redemptions.
Meanwhile, stablecoin supply contracted by $17 billion over the past month, indicating reduced liquidity across cryptocurrency markets.
Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), the largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin holder, faces mounting unrealized losses as prices decline. Its 850,364 Bitcoin holdings were valued at approximately $54.8 billion at Saturday's prices, compared with an acquisition cost of $64.16 billion.
Executive Chairman Michael Saylor highlighted stronger performance from Strategy's income-paying preferred shares, STRC, which returned 13.4% over one year, including dividends.
Separately, a Bitcoin Policy Institute proposal suggested using surplus Scottish wind electricity for Bitcoin mining to reduce Britain's annual grid constraint costs exceeding £1 billion.
Investors now face additional uncertainty surrounding the Federal Reserve's December policy meeting, with interest-rate expectations and weaker appetite for speculative assets threatening further cryptocurrency volatility.
Broader crypto prices were mixed on Saturday, based on the latest market snapshot. Ether rose 0.95% to $2,247.99, while XRP fell 0.82% to $1.1782. Solana rallied 0.71% to $90.220, and BNB edged up 0.48% to $695.23. Cardano gained 0.65% to trade at $0.1846, while Dogecoin lost 0.31%. Among meme coins, TRUMP was trading flat for the day, while Shiba Inu fell 1.53%.