The crypto market took another sharp hit on Friday as Bitcoin tumbled below the $90,000 mark, triggering widespread losses across major digital assets and driving nearly half a billion dollars in liquidations. Bitcoin briefly touched $88,420 early in the day before recovering slightly to around $89,215, marking a drop of more than 3% over the previous 24 hours. This latest decline adds to a week of turmoil that already saw Bitcoin plunge below $85,000 on Monday before staging a rapid rebound, highlighting the heightened volatility gripping the market.
The recent swings come after a particularly turbulent period for Bitcoin, which fell to a seven-month low of about $81,000 in late November. That slump followed its early October surge to a new all-time high of $126,080. With the benchmark cryptocurrency now down nearly 30% from its peak, traders are once again questioning where the market may find support as volatility continues to climb.
Major altcoins mirrored Bitcoin’s slide, with even steeper losses across the board. Ethereum dropped more than 4% to around $3,021, struggling to stay above the psychologically important $3,000 threshold. XRP fell 4% to $2.03, while Solana and Dogecoin each shed nearly 7%, trading at $132 and below $0.14 respectively. The broad downturn contributed to more than $493 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. Long positions were hit hardest, accounting for $412 million of the total liquidations, including $191 million tied to Bitcoin alone, underscoring how aggressively traders had been betting on further price increases.
What makes the latest sell-off notable is its contrast with traditional markets, where major stock indices showed modest gains. The S&P 500 hovered near record highs as investors grew more confident that the Federal Reserve may deliver a third interest rate cut at next week’s FOMC meeting. Despite the positive sentiment in equities, crypto-specific assets and stocks failed to benefit. Shares of Bitcoin miners took a hit, with CleanSpark dropping 8% while Bitfarms and Hive Digital both fell about 5%. Coinbase slipped less than 1%, while MicroStrategy and Robinhood registered declines of around 3%.
Market analysts suggest that the divergence may reflect uncertainty surrounding crypto leverage, liquidity conditions, and trader positioning rather than broader macroeconomic signals. After several months of aggressive upward movements and new highs, the market may now be entering a phase of consolidation as leveraged traders unwind risky positions. While no single catalyst has emerged to explain Friday’s downturn, the scale of liquidations suggests that algorithmic trading and cascading stop-loss triggers contributed to the acceleration of price declines.
Despite the pullback, long-term fundamentals for major networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum remain strong, supported by ongoing institutional adoption, maturing infrastructure, and rising interest in decentralized applications. However, the current climate serves as a reminder that crypto markets continue to operate with a high degree of sensitivity to leverage and sentiment shifts. With the FOMC meeting approaching, traders can expect continued volatility as markets digest potential policy signals.
Looking ahead, the broader takeaway is clear: crypto remains deeply reactive to both internal dynamics and external macro conditions. While periods of volatility are not new for digital assets, how markets stabilize in the coming days could set the tone for the next phase of the cycle.
