Bitcoin fell below $66,000 early Saturday UTC as the selloff forced more bullish bets to close. By afternoon, it was trading near $65,500, putting leveraged traders at risk of losing their positions before any rebound.
By Saturday evening, CryptoSlate data showed Bitcoin near the bottom of its rolling 24-hour range, from $63,278 to $69,052, after finally dropping below $64,000.
CryptoSlate's Bitcoin price page shows the asset down 6.5% over 24 hours, 15.8% over seven days and 19.7% over 30 days. Trailing 24-hour trading volume was $31.59 billion.
Leveraged longs face forced reductions
Newhedge's futures dashboard recorded a $919,774 Binance BTCUSDT long liquidation at $65,976 at 14:26 UTC on Nov. 14. It recorded another, worth $781,412, at $65,892 at 14:39 UTC.
At 14:48 UTC, Newhedge recorded a $260,381 Bybit BTCUSDT long liquidation at $65,571. These were individual forced closures of bullish bets, not a market-wide liquidation total or the traders' net losses.
Unlike someone simply holding Bitcoin, a leveraged long position can be reduced or closed when a falling price erodes the collateral supporting it. A later rebound does not reopen a liquidated position.
A futures position can be liquidated when its available collateral falls below the maintenance margin required to keep it open. The system first attempts to reduce the shortfall by offloading a position into the market with an Immediate or Cancel order.
Forced closures can add selling pressure as prices fall. The records do not establish what triggered Saturday's selloff or how much liquidations contributed to the decline.
Even a recovery to $66,000 would leave Bitcoin below the week's close of roughly $69,225. For leveraged bulls, the immediate challenge is keeping their positions open long enough to benefit from any recovery.
