Bitcoin, Ether Fall as Crypto Liquidations Reach $1.03 Billion

Bitcoin and Ether fell alongside U.S. stocks Thursday as a broad selloff drove $1.03 billion in crypto liquidations over 24 hours and forced the closure of leveraged positions.

Bitcoin fell 5.97% to $75,695.68 on Binance during the session and touched a low of $75,568. Ether dropped 7.29% to $2,247.74 after reaching $2,236.78. U.S. stocks also sank during trading: the Nasdaq Composite slid 5.10%, the S&P 500 fell 3.43%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.41%.

Crypto liquidations totaled $879.92 million during a four-hour period, including $818.90 million in long positions and $61.02 million in short positions. Long positions are bets on rising prices; short positions are bets on declines. Longs made up most of the four-hour total.

Over 24 hours, the liquidations affected 198,192 traders. The largest single liquidation was a $10.94 million position in Binance’s ETHUSDT pair. The declines came as investors reacted to Democrats winning both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.