The crypto market has experienced a turbulent day, with Bitcoin briefly trading below $59,000. This price dip has triggered a wave of liquidations across various exchanges, with over $188 million liquidated in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin‘s value plummeted by approximately 4% on Thursday, reaching a three-week low of $58,930. The significant price drop contributed to a broader market sell-off, impacting most major cryptocurrencies. However, Uniswap’s native token, UNI, bucked the trend by rising ahead of an announcement regarding an upcoming layer 2 network.

Significant Liquidation Figures

Data from CoinGlass reveals that around 57,201 traders faced liquidation in the past day, with long positions on Bitcoin accounting for more than $150 million of the total. In stark contrast, only $38 million worth of short positions were liquidated during the same timeframe. Notably, the largest liquidation order occurred on a BTC/USDT trading pair on Binance, valued at $10.5 million, representing one-fifth of all Bitcoin long positions liquidated.

Institutional Selling Pressure

According to analyst J.A Maartunn from CryptoQuant, the sell pressure has been attributed to institutional investors on Coinbase. The Coinbase Premium, which measures the price difference of Bitcoin between Coinbase and Binance, has significantly dropped, indicating that U.S. investors are offloading their holdings. On October 8, the Coinbase Premium fell to -$41, and on October 10, it further declined to -$72.6, suggesting continued large-volume sales from U.S. investors.

Holding Steady Despite Liquidations

Despite the intense selling pressure, Maartunn noted that the liquidations are not linked to the infamous Silk Road Bitcoins, which remain intact in a wallet holding 69,370 BTC (approximately $4.1 billion). This indicates that while market volatility is high, certain significant holdings remain unaffected.