Bitcoin price immediately fell below the $60,000 level as the halving approached.
According to data from CoinMarketCap, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) is down more than 3% in the past 24 hours, trading at $59,800 at the time of writing. Cryptocurrency trading volumes declined by almost 12% to $40 billion.
Data from CoinGlass shows that traders are actively liquidating their positions. Over the past four hours, traders sold over $115 million in assets, of which $96.70 million were long positions and the rest were short positions. The largest share of liquidations took place on crypto exchange OKX, totaling $43.81 million.
In just a few days, the impending BTC halving will occur, with traders potentially exiting their positions due to the seismic event. The halving will reduce miner rewards by 50%, stifling the number of coins uploaded to the market – a feature some Bitcoin supporters view as optimistic.
As the halving approaches, the coin has experienced increased volatility, and not just because of the halving. The sell-off also comes as investors continue to withdraw funds from popular Bitcoin ETFs after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank needs to see more progress on the inflation front before reduce rates.
Markus Thielen, head of research at 10x Research, notes that crypto miners began accumulating Bitcoin in January 2024 to increase the imbalance between supply and demand. As a result, the price of BTC rose sharply and reached its all-time high in March.
On the other hand, digital asset mining companies will gradually eliminate the accumulated coins after halving them, which will put pressure on the price of cryptocurrencies.