Stephanie Douse 
Bitcoin (BTC) witnessed its biggest number of liquidations since late January in the last 24 hours, data revealed on Friday, May 6th.
The world’s largest cryptocurrency dropped over 8% to as low as $35,000, its lowest level since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. This triggered the liquidation of over $160 million positions in the hopes that the token would trade oppositely.
The problem in the crypto market is being amplified in futures and options trading. Over $400 million worth of positions were liquidated in the last 24 hours as crypto’s latest slump took many investors off-guard.
Concerns over an economic recession and rising interest rates weighed hard on the crypto market, which lost roughly $130 billion in market value in the last 24 hours.
Bitcoin (BTC) long positions take another hit
According to Coinglass data, long positions accounted for over 85% of all liquidations in the last 24 hours, amounting to $368 million.
$164 million long positions on BTC were liquidated, their biggest number since a similar scenario in January.
According to the data, traders expected the world’s largest cryptocurrency to climb after a minor rebound on Thursday, but this did not happen.
BTC’s long positions have been consistently liquidated this year, surprising investors eager to see the token’s losses come to an end. The reasons behind the crypto rout haven’t changed. Traders are concerned about the possibility of an economic recession as well as rising interest rates.
Altcoin traders are not exempted
Besides BTC, top altcoins have seen an increase in liquidations in the last 24 hours. Apart from Ethereum ETH), newcomers STEPN (GMT) and ApeCoin (APE), which outpaced the crypto market in April, witnessed some of the largest liquidations (.
Around $12.5 million was liquidated in both GMT and APE, in which almost 78% of the positions were long.
Ethereum, the most popular altcoin, had $69 million positions liquidated, with a 92% ratio of long positions, far higher than its peers. Traders were probably hoping for the token to acquire some support ahead of the much-anticipated switch to a proof-of-stake system.