Bitcoin hovers $77K, $660M liquidations

Bitcoin traded around $77,000 on Sunday, May 24, after a week of sharp swings that pushed the token below $77,000 at points and kept Ethereum near the low-$2,000 range. MarketCoinpedia said in a social-media recap within the last 48 hours that total crypto liquidations topped $660 million over 24 hours and affected more than 180,000 traders. Live market dashboards on Sunday showed the liquidation tally had moved higher by the time of publication, underscoring how quickly derivatives losses can build during volatile trading. ### Why did the liquidation number change from $660 million to a higher figure? CoinGlass said on May 24 that 24-hour liquidations had reached $940.56 million and 161,111 traders, compared with the earlier social-media snapshot that put the figure above $660 million. The difference reflects timing: liquidation dashboards update continuously, and totals can rise materially within hours as prices keep moving. BingX, citing CoinGecko data in a market recap published within the past week, reported that Bitcoin’s move below $77,000 triggered about $660 million in leveraged liquidations over 24 hours and pushed the token to an intraday low of $76,696. (twiscan.com) That report said long positions took most of the losses. ### Where were Bitcoin and Ethereum trading? Yahoo Finance showed Bitcoin at $77,191.17 as of 11:24:11 a.m. (coinglass.com) UTC on May 24. CoinMarketCap’s historical data showed Bitcoin closed at $76,673.37 on May 23 after trading as high as $77,288.12 and as low as $74,255.23 that day. MarketCoinpedia’s post said Ethereum was holding in roughly the $2,100 to $2,200 range during the same period. That aligns with the broader picture from market recaps over the past week, which described Ethereum as remaining above $2,100 while Bitcoin tested lower support levels. (bingx.com) ### What does a liquidation wave actually mean for traders? A liquidation happens when an exchange forcibly closes a leveraged position because losses have consumed the trader’s margin. (finance.yahoo.com) CoinGlass presents those forced closures in real time across one-hour, four-hour, 12-hour and 24-hour windows, separating long and short losses. The May 24 CoinGlass dashboard showed long liquidations of $868.28 million versus $72.28 million for shorts over 24 hours. (twiscan.com) That split indicated that traders betting on higher prices absorbed most of the damage during the sell-off. ### How unusual was this move? CoinMarketCap and Yahoo Finance data showed Bitcoin had spent much of May trading in a band from the mid-$70,000s to low-$80,000s. CoinMarketCap’s daily history shows Bitcoin above $82,000 as recently as May 10 and near $79,000 on May 15 before sliding into the mid-$76,000s by May 23. (coinglass.com) BeInCrypto reported earlier in the week that a prior sell-off had already erased $584 million in long positions in 24 hours, while Analytics Insight tied one bout of weakness to broader risk-off sentiment and ETF outflows. (coinglass.com) Those reports show the latest liquidation surge followed several days of elevated stress in crypto markets rather than a single isolated break. ### Where can readers track the next move? (coinmarketcap.com) CoinGlass continued updating its liquidation heatmap and 24-hour totals on May 24, while CoinMarketCap maintained live price and liquidation dashboards for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other tokens. Yahoo Finance was also publishing intraday Bitcoin pricing on Sunday. May 25 trading in Asia and Europe will provide the next test of whether Bitcoin can hold near $77,000 or revisit the roughly $76,696 low cited in recent market coverage, with CoinGlass and major price trackers publishing the next round of live data. (beincrypto.com) (bingx.com) (coinglass.com)