The crypto market continues to fall, with the global crypto market cap plunging over 4% from $3.98 trillion to $3.82 trillion in the last two days. It means more than $160 billion was erased from the crypto market.
Bitcoin (BTC) dropped from $120K to $118K as demand faded – evidenced by spot Bitcoin ETFs outflows for 3 consecutive days.
Ethereum (ETH) price failed to build momentum to $4,000 after a huge sell wall appeared as the price hit $3,850.
Top altcoins such as XRP, BNB, Solana (SOL), TRON (TRX), and Cardano (ADA) also saw profit booking. Meme coins Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) tumbled more than 10%.
Crypto Market Faces $1 Billion Liquidations
CoinGlass data indicated over $1 billion in crypto liquidations, with almost 300K traders liquidated in the last 24 hours.
The largest single liquidation order of BTCUSDC, valued at $2.96 million, happened on crypto exchange Binance.
Nearly $870 million long and over $140 million short positions were liquidated. Most liquidated cryptocurrencies included ETH, XRP, SOL, DOGE, WIF, and PEPE.
Altcoin Season Index Drops & Options Expiry
Interestingly, Bitcoin saw lower liquidation than expected. It indicated that the crypto market crash happened due to profit booking in altcoins. The Altcoin Season Index dropped back to 39 after rising to nearly 60 recently.
Bitcoin price moved mostly sideways for a week, with the price trading at $118,752. The 24-hour low and high were $117,247 and $119,290, respectively. Furthermore, the trading volume increased by 8% in the last 24 hours, indicating a modest rebound in interest among traders.
However, the upcoming monthly options expiry on July 25 may trigger a fall in BTC price. Over 106K BTC options with a notional value of over $12.66 billion to expire on Deribit, with a max pain price of $112,000.
Crypto Market: Ethereum and XRP Triggered Selloff
Selling pressure on ETH price was sudden, as The Coin Republic first warned on July 22. CoinGlass Spot Order Heatmap showed a massive sell wall of 68K ETH worth $263 million between $3,850 and $4,000.
This caused a massive drop in Ethereum price as traders or whales opened short positions on ETH. Notably, the “Mysterious Whale” AguilaTrades closed his ETH long position and opened a long position on Bitcoin with 20x leverage.
Popular analysts such as Michael van de Poppe predicted a correction in altcoins as RSI signaled overbought, and a fall was anticipated. He predicted ETH price would fall to $3,300.
XRP price dropped due to three primary reasons. These include Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen moving XRP, the Ripple vs SEC lawsuit settlement delay, and technical chart weakness.
XRP RSI surges to 85, indicating a cooldown was expected. Also, XRP price broke below the key $3.36 support level and may drop further below $2.90 for a stronger recovery from the Fib retracement “golden zone.”
This triggered a broader selloff in the altcoin market. BNB, Solana (SOL), TRON (TRX), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and others saw profit booking.
Macro Headwinds as POTUS to Meet Fed Chair
President Donald Trump will meet Fed Chair Jerome Powell at the US Federal Reserve on Thursday at 4:00 PM ET. He would look at Jerome Powell’s $2.5 billion in renovations of the Fed building.
Trump urged Fed Chair Powell to cut interest rates, but Powell refused and turned hawkish on tariffs-induced inflation.
The US dollar index (DXY) has increased 0.7% to 97.40 due to a report suggesting a strong labor market. Moreover, the US 10-year Treasury yield also rose slightly to 4.408%.
Bitcoin and Ethereum prices continue to remain under pressure, indicating that traders have turned cautious ahead of the options expiry.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2025/07/24/1b-crypto-market-liquidation-why-btc-eth-xrp-sol-others-are-falling-today/