Bitcoin (BTC) fell below weekly lows on Friday, reaching as low as $65,600 after hitting fresh all-time highs.
However, market observers remained calm, attributing the dip to typical corrective moves within a broader uptrend.
Popular commentator On-Chain College, which boasts over 52k followers on X, noted that a 10% retracement in Bitcoin’s price is normal during bull runs, contrasting it with the possibility of greater than 30% corrections.
With the majority of the supply sitting in unrealized profit after the strong move to all-time highs, On-Chain College described the Bitcoin dip as “very normal bull market behavior.”
“This drop is after a strong move to all-time highs with >95% of the supply sitting in unrealized profit,” the user wrote. “Nothing to see here, very normal bull market behavior.”
How Far Could BTC Drop?
Amid the recent market correction, discussions about the potential depth of the market decline has emerged.
Trader Credible Crypto highlighted a block of bid liquidity around $64,000 as a logical level to expect a bounce or reversal, given the significant decrease in open interest (OI) during the drawdown.
“This would be a logical place to expect a bounce/reversal if we get it along with a wipe of the remaining built up OI,” the user wrote.
Didn\'t get that push higher and instead it looks like this is the drop we\'ve been looking for playing out now.
Note that this recent drop has wiped most of our built up OI- but we still have a bit more room to go before hitting the \"baseline\" so we could go lower to the green… https://t.co/KSoPGIqGiL pic.twitter.com/GDF4PydxqJ
— CrediBULL Crypto (@CredibleCrypto) March 15, 2024
Meanwhile, trader Jelle compared the current correction to historical patterns, pointing out that the average major Bitcoin pullback in this cycle has been about 20%.
He suggested that if a similar-sized pullback were to occur, it could bring the price to around $58,000.
Jelle, while acknowledging his surprise at the pullback, expressed optimism and expectation of higher prices in the coming months.
However, he advised caution and preparedness in case the market did experience further declines.
Bitcoin Dip Leads to Over $800 Million in Liquidations
As leveraged long positions unwound, liquidations increased significantly.
According to data by CoinGlass, long and short traders suffered more than $810 million in losses across major centralized exchanges over the past 24 hours.
More specifically, 246,416 traders have been liquidated, with the total long liquidations coming in at $667 million and short liquidations coming in at around $143 million.
Crypto exchange Binance took the lion’s share of these liquidations at around $300 million, followed by OKX at $293 million and Bybit at around $94 million.
Bitcoin-tracked futures experienced $280 million in both short and long liquidations over the past day while Ethererum-linked futures saw over $138 million in liquidations.
Meanwhile, popular trader Skew revealed that few market participants are willing to take short positions.
Spot selling was leading the price lower, and more long positions were being liquidated.
Skew noted that panic shorting was not yet evident, with most activity involving profit-taking hedges, which often lead to price bounces.
“Perp premium back to a mere $20-$30, lower would be better with spot bid. Not seeing much panic shorting yet, mostly hedges taking profit which leads to bounces.”
$BTC
Spot selling still leading price lower & more longs taken out herePerp premium back to a mere $20-$30, lower would be better with spot bid
Not seeing much panic shorting yet, mostly hedges taking profit which leads to bounces https://t.co/6qLEW8zFvK pic.twitter.com/Mo7h2D2SZ3
— Skew Δ (@52kskew) March 15, 2024