17 Apr Bitcoin Price Spikes Above $7.1K, Liquidating $23M on BitMEX
Bitcoin’s price jumped close to $500 early on Thursday, triggering liquidations worth millions on crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX.
The top cryptocurrency by market value picked up a bid around $6,650 and rose to a high of $7,145 in the 90 minutes to 08:30 UTC, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
The sudden move forced liquidations of futures worth $23 million on BiMEX, of which $10 million happened in the 60 minutes to 08:00 UTC and the remainder in the following 30 minutes, according to data provided by the crypto derivatives research firm Skew.
Total liquidation volume seen over that timeframe was significantly higher than the three-day hourly liquidation average of $1.6 million.
Sell liquidations occur when
the market moves against long positions and breaches a predetermined limit,
forcing BitMEX’s liquidation engine to liquidate (or sell) long positions.
Meanwhile, buy liquidations occur when prices move against short…