Sunday Night Massacre
Bitcoin dropped $4,000 in two hours on Sunday.
From around $115,000 to $111,000 before stabilizing near $112,800 by Monday morning. Thin weekend liquidity made every sell order hit harder than it normally would.The trigger was a whale moving 24,000 BTC to crypto exchange Hyperunite according to CoinDesk reporting.
Not the most liquid venue to dump that much Bitcoin, which made the price impact worse.Weekend crypto markets are a bloodbath waiting to happen. Trading volume drops 40% on weekends. Asian markets closed, European traders watching Netflix, US institutions not monitoring positions. Perfect time for someone with serious size to move the market.Liquidation CascadeThe selloff triggered over $550 million in forced liquidations across exchanges.
Bitcoin positions took $238 million in liquidations alone, with Ethereum adding another $216 million.When leveraged traders get margin calls during illiquid hours, it turns into a feeding frenzy. Each liquidation pushes the price lower, triggering more margin calls, creating a cascade effect that wipes out months of gains in hours.But here's the thing
- these liquidations actually cleaned house. All those 50x leveraged positions betting on Bitcoin above $115K are gone. What's left are stronger hands: ETFs, institutional buyers, and people who bought with actual cash instead of borrowed money.The Ethereum RotationWhile Bitcoin was getting hammered, Ethereum held up better.
ETH dropped from its recent all-time high of $4,946 but stayed above $4,600. The resilience wasn't an accident.According to Hashdex CIO Samir Kerbage, "Ether's new all-time high is a clear sign of investor demand beyond just bitcoin." Institutional money is rotating from Bitcoin to Ethereum.
Makes sense
- ETH staking yields around 3.2%. Bitcoin yields zero. In a world where the Fed might cut rates, yield-generating assets look more attractive.Quick Recovery Shows DemandBitcoin bounced back to $112,600+ by Monday morning. That's not the behavior of a broken market. When you see a 4% dump recover within 12 hours, it means there was real buying underneath all the leverage.The fact that institutions stepped in during Asian trading hours shows they were waiting for exactly this kind of selling opportunity. These are the same funds that have been accumulating Bitcoin all year through ETF purchases and direct treasury holdings.