The Crypto Market’s Rollercoaster Ride

The crypto market experienced extreme volatility on Monday, March 3. Just 24 hours after US President Donald Trump’s bullish announcement about building a crypto reserve, which caused a surge of $350 billion, the market reversed sharply.

The leading digital assets lost their gains, leading to chaos among derivative market traders. Investors may continue trading amid confusion until the market stabilizes. Due to the increased uncertainty, over $1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated, leaving traders who bet on a post-crypto reserve rally in dire straits.

Bitcoin Crashes to $83K

According to CoinGlass data, around 300,000 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, totaling liquidations exceeded $1 billion. The largest single liquidation order was for $13.4 million on Bitfinex. Notably, $934 million (85%) of the liquidations were long bets, indicating that traders expected bullish momentum to continue after Trump’s announcement. However, the market reversed course following a recent tariff declaration, causing the cumulative crypto market cap to dip by 8% to $2.77 trillion.

Bitcoin alone recorded $370 million worth of liquidations, with $307 million coming from long bets. The BTC price plunged over 8% within 24 hours, dropping from above $93,000 to the $82,000 zone. As of now, Bitcoin trades at an average price of $83,687, with a 12% drop in Open Interest (OI), signaling that traders are cautious until clarity over tariff wars emerges.

Bitcoin Bull Cycle Still Intact

Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, tweeted that Bitcoin’s market may remain slow until US sentiment improves. He noted minimal on-chain activity and neutral key indicators, suggesting that the bull cycle persists. Despite fears, the fundamentals are strong, with an increase in mining rigs.

> The market will likely remain slow until sentiment improves. Key indicators are neutral, indicating the bull cycle is still intact.
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> — Ki Young Ju (@ki_young_ju) March 4, 2025

Major altcoins like Ethereum, XRP, Solana, and Cardano also faced significant declines, with Ether and XRP prices falling 10% each, while SOL and ADA lost 15% of their values in just 24 hours. This downturn was not isolated to crypto; the broader market also felt the impact, with stocks like Nvidia and Tesla erasing billions in market value.