Bitcoin dropped $1,900 this morning as funding rates for its futures across crypto exchanges soared to dangerous levels. The asset trades at $58,100 at press time, down -2.2% from last night’s $60,000 price level.
Funding rates are periodic payments to long or short traders based on the difference between the perpetual contract market and the spot price. Funding rates make the perpetual futures contract price close to the index price and can affect market microstructure based on how high or low they reach.
The plunge is part of a falling market structure in the broader timeframes. Bitcoin started its week above $63,000—down $5,000 from last week’s high of $69,000—and has since seen lower highs and lower lows.
Traders seemed to purchase Bitcoin at the $57,000 price level, where it saw a bump to its current $58,700 price. It now faces resistance at the $60,000 level, one that bulls need to defend should it continue a surge to newer highs.
Meanwhile, data from on-chain analytics tool Bybt showed the move ended up liquidating over $66 million worth of Bitcoin trades in the past hour alone. Much of these liquidations came from crypto exchange OKEx, with Binance and Huobi following closely behind. As such, 96% of all liquidated trades were long positions—meaning those betting on higher prices.
Similar plunges were seen across other large-cap cryptocurrencies. Ethereum, Cardano, and Solana fell -5%, -9%, and -5.9% respectively, with funding rates for all their futures products going through the roofs as of this morning.
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