$200m in crypto gets liquidated after 50bps rate cut

The crypto market experienced a remarkable bullish reaction after the long-anticipated rate cut by the U.S. Federal Reserve, triggering increased liquidations.

Fed Rate Cut Sparks a Chained Liquidations Event

According to data taken from Coinglass, the total crypto liquidations jumped by 46% over the past day, hitting almost $200 million. The majority of the liquidated positions, worth $126 million, are shorts due to the market-wide bullish trends.

Bitcoin is dominating the chart with $75 million in liquidations following a 2.9% price boost. BTC is currently trading around the $62,000 level.

Notably, the largest single liquidation, worth $8.9 million in the BTC-USD pair, occurred on the Bybit crypto exchange, per Coinglass data. In total, over 66,000 traders have been liquidated in the past 24 hours.

Ethereum secured the second spot with over $35 million in liquidations as it’s price exceeded the $2,400 mark.

Despite the increased liquidations, the total crypto open interest climbed by 8% in the last 24 hours and is currently hovering at $60 billion. 

Market Sentiment and Open Interest: Signs of FOMO?

Increasing open interest is typically a sign of FOMO — the fear of missing out — that could potentially amplify the amount of liquidations, leading to high price fluctuations. At this point, investor sentiment has significantly improved.

We witnessed many of these events in our crypto experience and found that sudden market shifts often lead to cascading liquidations, especially among overleveraged traders.

The increased liquidations came after the U.S. Fed announced a 50-basis-point rate cut at 18:00 UTC on Sept. 18, turning out as the first Fed rate cut we’ve seen since March 2020. 

Subsequently, the global crypto market cap grew by 3%, reaching $2.25 trillion, per data from CoinGecko. The daily trading volume surpassed the $130 billion mark. Moreover, the U.S. stock market also exhibited bullish momentum.

Conclusion & Considerations

To wrap it up, the Fed’s rate cut has generated a wave of positive sentiment across both crypto and traditional markets and as we’ve seen, that has led to significant liquidations and price surges. While this bullish trend may seem encouraging, we advise you to remain vigilant and always factor in potential risks.