According to Woofun AI, macroeconomic policy fog enveloped the market, and the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple fell collectively, directly triggering the forced liquidation of crypto futures positions worth nearly $483 million. This sharp fluctuation was not an isolated incident; it was a direct projection of the market's chaotic expectations for the Federal Reserve's next interest rate decision, causing leveraged funds to be quickly cleared amid the fears of Thursday morning.
Market turmoil intensified in the past 24 hours on Thursday. According to data compiled by Woofun AI, the total settlement scale of Bitcoin and Ethereum futures reached 483 million US dollars. Specifically, the price of Bitcoin hovered around $81,000, down about 3% in 24 hours; Ethereum performed even weaker, falling by more than 6% to around $2,350. Ripple and Solana's SOL both declined by around 5%, while Dogecoin dropped nearly 6%. Liquidation pressure was further evident during the opening hours of the Asian market: Bitcoin-related liquidations were $197 million, while Ethereum reached $286 million. At that time, the price of Ethereum fell another 6.4% to $2,356, and Bitcoin's decline extended to 3.2%, but remained around $81,000.
The essence of a settlement mechanism is a weak balance between borrowed funds and collateral. When the collateral is insufficient due to price fluctuations, the exchange will automatically close the position. In the case of a $1,000 principal controlling a $10,000 position, even if the price falls by less than 10%, traders may lose all of their collateral in an instant.
This forced sell-off has intensified downward pressure on the market. Notably, although the total value of open futures contracts on Ethereum is only about $30 billion, far lower than Bitcoin's $52 billion, the impact was more severe, showing that the asset class is more sensitive to leverage.
Long-tailed coins were also not spared, and the wave of sell-offs spread to other assets. As the SOL price fell by around 5.5%, the Solana futures contract triggered about $31 million in liquidations; ZEC fell even deeper, reaching 13%, and the related liquidation amount was close to $19 million. To be clear, the above data reflects the nominal value of closed positions, not the actual amount of cash lost by traders.
This round of liquidation marks another exposure of the vulnerability of high-leverage strategies under macroeconomic uncertainty, and the depth of the market is facing severe tests under extreme market conditions.