Bitcoin [BTC] and Ethereum’s [ETH] major dip overnight left the market stunned. What triggered the decline? Is this the start of something new?
Here’s the rundown.
Bullcember? Nope
Source: TradingView
Bitcoin and Ethereum both opened December with back-to-back hourly breakdowns. BTC fell from around $86,300 to nearly $85,000 in a single hour, followed by continued bleeding toward $85,800.
The sequence shows a clear change from steady consolidation to an abrupt sell-off, with no meaningful recovery attempts on subsequent candles.
Source: TradingView
Ethereum also moved similarly. It slipped from roughly $2,825 to just above $2,806 in the first major red candle, then plunged again toward $2,820 before drifting lower.
The pattern on both charts looks like a synchronized market-wide drop, hitting both majors at the same moment and erasing hours of sideways stabilization in minutes.
Liquidation data shows the damages
Liquidation data shows how widespread the damage was.
Across the last 24 hours, traders absorbed $647.25 million in liquidations, with longs taking the biggest hit at $572.91 million. BTC alone saw $201.89 million cleared, while ETH followed with $159.20 million.
Source: CoinGlass
Other majors weren’t spared either. The “Others” category logged $73.86 million, with Solana [SOL] at $35.09 million and Ripple’s [XRP] near $15.67 million.
The single largest liquidation was an ETHUSDC position worth $14.48 million.
The 12-hour window makes the wipeout concentration obvious: $571.90 million flushed out, almost entirely from long positions.
Sell-side pressure
Source: SoSoValue
ETF data indicates a clear cooling of demand leading into the drop. Bitcoin spot ETFs saw only $71.37M in net inflows, following multiple days of heavy outflows reaching as deep as -$1.1B.
Source: SoSoValue
Ethereum ETFs also showed weakness, with long stretches of negative daily flows and assets sliding toward $19.15B.
Source: Santiment
Whale activity was elevated across both BTC and ETH, with frequent spikes in transactions above $1M. Large holders were actively moving funds, which is usually followed by volatility.
Source: CryptoQuant
In addition, Bitcoin’s exchange netflow chart shows inflows, including a major spike nearing -350K BTC. This is in tandem with price weakness around $86K.
Final Thoughts
- Massive long liquidations and cooling ETF demand may have caused the sudden BTC and ETH wipeout.
- Elevated whale activity and exchange inflows means there’s more volatility on the way.