Crypto Carnage: Bitcoin & Ethereum Plunge Triggers $1.1B Liquidation Bloodbath

Market meltdown turns leverage traders into crash-test dummies.

### The Great Unwind

Liquidations hit $1.1 billion as crypto''s top assets nosedived—proof that even ''digital gold'' gets tarnished in a storm. Bitcoin and Ethereum led the charge downward, wiping out over-leveraged positions faster than a DeFi rug pull.

### Margin Call Mayhem

Futures markets turned into a slaughterhouse as stop-losses triggered cascading sell orders. The usual suspects—excessive leverage and crowded trades—proved Wall Street''s oldest lesson applies doubly to crypto: pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered.

### Silver Linings Playbook

For cold-stack hodlers? Just another Tuesday. The real fireworks came from perpetual swap traders learning the hard way that 100x leverage works both directions. Meanwhile, traditional finance desks are probably high-fiving over their 1.5% bond yields.

Ethereum perpetuals have also recorded notable liquidation, totaling $291 million, which includes $245 million in long positions and $45 million in shorts. Other leading altcoins have also seen significant flushes following these two leaders. 

Historically, such geopolitical instability has pushed investors toward traditional safe havens like gold and U.S. Treasuries, a trend reinforced by a 2022 National Bureau of Economic Research study linking conflict zones to 15-20% volatility spikes in cryptocurrency prices. Bitcoin, often dubbed “digital gold,” failed to retain its safe-haven narrative this time, dropping to key support near $103,000, while Ethereum saw its month-long rally take a sharp reversal.

Market analysts observed a spike in trading volumes and noted that the Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is signaling oversold conditions, though no immediate reversal is evident. 

Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, remarked, “Crypto is reacting negatively to the Israel-Iran strikes, in line with major risk assets. We expect technical support around $101,000, but geopolitical news will dominate short-term price action.” 

Meanwhile, ETF net outflows for Bitcoin and a shift toward defensive altcoins suggest traders are adopting a wait-and-see approach, pending clearer macro signals.

Also read: “The Bubble Has Peaked”: Peter Schiff on Bitcoin’s Crash