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The crypto market displayed a volatile picture today, with a sudden price movement in a short period causing significant repercussions. What began as a relatively calm trading day turned into a sharp correction in the late afternoon, resulting in substantial losses for Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies. What exactly happened?
Market Overview #
The crypto market is in the red today, almost entirely due to sudden and significant price swings late in the afternoon. As a result, the market is down 2.4%, with the total market capitalization hovering around $3.1 trillion.
Bitcoin has fallen 2.3% in value today, driven entirely by the sudden price drop in the past hour. Within one hour, Bitcoin lost more than 2% of its value, with the price slipping from $89,500 to $86,800.
This comes despite the world’s largest bitcoin holder reaffirming its confidence in the digital currency earlier today by purchasing nearly $1 billion worth of bitcoin for the second consecutive week. The price has been in a significant slump, trading nearly 25% lower than its all-time high in October. However, Michael Saylor’s Strategy remains undeterred, continuing to buy heavily.
Other major top 10 coins also took a hit in the last hour. Ethereum has dropped nearly 2% to $3,000. XRP, BNB, and Solana are also down approximately 2 to 3%.
According to analysts, the sudden drop is due to a large liquidation wave of over $200 million in the past hour.
BREAKING: Bitcoin falls below $87,000 as $200 million worth of levered longs are liquidated in 30 minutes. — The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) December 15, 2025
A liquidation wave means that many traders lose their positions simultaneously because the price moves quickly while they are trading with borrowed money (leverage); if their loss becomes too large, the platform automatically closes their position. When long positions are liquidated, it means these traders had bet on a rising price, but the price fell instead, forcing their positions to be sold, which adds extra selling pressure and can push the price even further down, creating a chain reaction.
Fear is prevalent in the market, and it’s clear. The notorious Crypto Fear & Greed Index is currently at 16, indicating the market is in a state of ’extreme fear'.
Today’s Top Gainers from the Top 100 #
Despite the significant price swings in the market, some coins managed to post gains, although these were limited:
| Name | Gain (24h) | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Rain | 1.9% | $0.077 |
| Zcash | 1.6% | $410 |
| Tron | 1.6% | $0.27 |
| HTX DAO | 1.1% | $0.00000016 |
| Monero | 0.5% | $411 |
Today’s Top Losers from the Top 100 #
There were significantly more losers in the market today. Among them, the well-known Sui is in the top 5 of biggest losers with a -6.5% drop.
| Name | Loss (24h) | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Midnight | 12.6% | $0.058 |
| Aster | 7.8% | $0.86 |
| MemeCOre | 7.4% | $1.73 |
| Sui | 6.6% | $1.48 |
| Bittensor | 6.2% | $270 |