Bitcoin (BTC) Tumbles Below $26.5K

Bitcoin (BTC) has dropped 7% over the past 24 hours, plunging to levels not seen since June as the digital-asset market witnessed one of the worst sell-offs this year. Crypto traders were hit with $1 billion worth of liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to Coinglass data. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value was trading at around $26,400 at the time of writing, but briefly fell to $25,234 on Thursday. Altcoins performed slightly better with ether (ETH) losing 6% over the same time period and Solana’s SOL losing around 5%. Traders say market structure and liquidations were a likely reason for the sudden drop instead of a singular fundamental catalyst. “We’ve seen BTC OI ramp up in position, with a bias to shorts,” said Decentral Park Capital trader Lewis Harland, in a message to CoinDesk. “The break below $28,500 led to material volumes of longs being liquidated. This has been combined with spot selling ahead of the date (likely anticipating further delays).”