Experts at the CoinGlass platform have identified a possible cause for the recent surge in volatility in the cryptocurrency market, which has led to traders losing over $138 million daily. They believe that investors’ reaction to the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may be the catalyst behind these losses.
During a 24-hour observation period, it was observed that $138.57 million worth of positions were liquidated, with $120.17 million in long positions and $18.40 million in short positions.
CoinGlass has noted several developments in both the on-chain and derivatives sectors that indicate a substantial number of Bitcoin traders were speculating and saw the ETF approval as an “opportunity to sell the news.”
Within the 12 days since the approval of the ETF, Bitcoin’s market value has dropped by more than 17%, declining from over $48,000 to $40,500.
Shortly after the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs on January 10, the asset’s price skyrocketed above $48,000 before experiencing a sharp decline to around $43,000. Now, analysts are predicting further declines for BTC, potentially below the $40,000 threshold.
Isla MacKenzie covers Web3 culture, NFTs and the metaverse from Edinburgh. A former product writer at Sky and CodeBase, she has been on the BTCNews team since 2022 and runs our weekly Creators newsletter. Isla studied Digital Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and was named one of CityAM's '30 Under 30 in Crypto' in 2024. She writes about culture without losing sight of the underlying tech.
