Bitcoin and Altcoins Are Dropping as Over $300M in Longs Were Liquidated - Here is Why

Altcoin 2026-03-24 09:26

Bitcoin and Altcoins Are Dropping as Over 0M in Longs Were Liquidated - Here is Why

The total crypto market cap is sitting at $2.33 trillion, down 1.94% in the past 24 hours - all major altcoins and Bitcoin are in the red.

Key Takeaways

  • Crypto total market cap fell to $2.33T, down nearly 2% on the day

  • Bitcoin trades around $67,800, down over 8% on the week; Ethereum off 10%

  • Fear and Greed Index at “Extreme Fear” with a score of 8

But pull back and look at the broader picture, and the damage becomes harder to dismiss. Every major asset class is in the red right now: crypto, gold, silver, equities – nothing is being spared. This isn’t the kind of isolated, sector-specific correction that traders can brush off as routine volatility. The scale and the breadth of what’s happening across markets points to something more systemic, and the pressure doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon.

Bitcoin and Major Altcoins Decline

Bitcoin is holding around $67,818 at the time of writing, but it’s down 1.94% on the day and 8.11% over the past seven days. That’s a significant weekly loss for an asset that was trading well above $100K just months ago.

Ethereum isn’t doing any better. ETH is at $2,034 – a clean drop below the psychologically important $2,100 level – and down 10.15% on the week. That’s the kind of number that starts triggering conversations about whether this correction has more room to run.

Solana dropped to $85.66, off 8.42% over seven days. XRP sits at $1.37, down 7.29% on the week. Even BNB took a hit, sliding 8.70% over the same period. This isn’t one coin’s problem. The entire top 10 is bleeding, with only the stablecoins holding their ground – as they always do when things get shaky.

Liquidations are telling the same story. In the past 24 hours, over 173,000 traders got wiped out. Coinglass data shows total liquidations hit $393 million, with long positions accounting for $307 million of that. The market was positioned for a move up. It got the opposite.

Why Is Everything Dropping?

Over the weekend, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards announced they would fully shut the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. follows through on threats to strike Iranian energy infrastructure, according to Reuters. This came directly in response to Trump to “obliterate” Ithreatening ran’s power plants if Tehran didn’t reopen the strait within 48 hours – a dramatic escalation that came barely a day after he’d been talking about winding down the conflict, now in its fourth week.

The Strait of Hormuz is not a minor chokepoint. Roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through it. A closure would send energy prices through the roof and put serious stress on global supply chains. Markets don’t like uncertainty, and right now there’s a lot of it.

What makes this worse is that it’s not just crypto reacting. Gold and silver – typically the safe haven plays during geopolitical turmoil – are also selling off hard. That signals something beyond simple risk-off rotation. Traders may be raising cash, covering margin, or just getting out of anything that isn’t the U.S. dollar.

On top of the geopolitical noise, the macro picture isn’t offering any relief. Rate cut hopes are looking increasingly unlikely in the near term. With inflation data still stubborn and the Fed showing no urgency to move, the prospect of cheaper liquidity – the fuel that powered the 2024 bull run – isn’t materializing. No rate cuts means tighter conditions, and tight conditions are historically bad for speculative assets like crypto.

What the Charts Are Saying

The Bitcoin Fear & Greed Index from Alternative.me is at 8 – Extreme Fear. Last week it was at 23, also in Extreme Fear territory, but the drop to 8 over seven days shows sentiment deteriorating fast. A month ago the index was also at 8, meaning we’re back at the same psychological lows without any meaningful recovery in between.

Bitcoin and Altcoins Are Dropping as Over 0M in Longs Were Liquidated - Here is Why

On the daily BTC/USD chart, RSI is sitting at 43, below the neutral 50 line – not yet oversold, but clearly in bearish momentum territory. The MACD tells a similar story, with the line at -264 and no sign of a bullish crossover forming. Price is currently sitting just above the $67,000 range, which served as a key level back in late 2024 before the breakout to all-time highs. Whether that level holds as support is the question everyone’s watching right now.

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This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

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