Bitcoin surges to $65,000 after $700 million in early Friday liquidations

Bitcoin rebounded sharply in Asia on Friday after a fresh wave of selling briefly pushed the token toward $60,000, extending a brutal drawdown that has now taken the world’s largest cryptocurrency more than 50% below its October peak.

BTC fell as much as 4.8% to around $60,033 during late U.S. hours, before snapping back to as high as $65,926. The move followed Thursday’s 13% slide, bitcoin’s steepest one-day drop since November 2022, when the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX triggered a marketwide panic.

The bounce came as liquidations surged again, clearing out leveraged positions that had built up during the week’s decline.

Roughly $700 million in crypto bets were wiped out over the past four hours, according to liquidation tracker CoinGlass, including about $530 million in long positions and $170 million in shorts. That mix suggests traders were first crushed on the way down, then caught leaning the wrong way on the rebound.

The move also appears to have drawn in spot buyers, with $60,000 acting as a psychological line that traders have been watching for weeks.

Damien Loh, chief investment officer at Ericsenz Capital, said the rebound points to “strong support” around that level, but warned sentiment remains fragile given the broader market backdrop.

Altcoins mirrored bitcoin’s whipsaw. Solana at one point fell as much as 14% before erasing those losses entirely within hours, shows how quickly risk appetite is flipping as liquidity thins and forced selling takes over.

The broader crypto market has been shaky since a series of liquidations in October rattled confidence, and the latest drawdown has been amplified by turbulence in global markets, where investors have been dumping speculative assets.

Bitcoin’s weakness is now spilling into crypto-linked balance sheets. Strategy, the company led by Michael Saylor, reported a $12.4 billion fourth-quarter net loss on Thursday, driven by mark-to-market declines in its bitcoin holdings.

Even with Friday’s bounce, traders say the market still looks like one being pushed around by leverage rather than conviction.