Bitcoin fell below $70,000 for the first time in eight weeks early Tuesday, hitting $69,390. The drop came after an entity called Strategy sold 32 bitcoins, a move that set off a cascade of liquidations across leveraged positions. Over $455 million in long bets were wiped out in the 48-hour selloff — one of the sharper single-entity-driven declines this year.
The 48-hour slide
Bitcoin lost $4,000 in value between Sunday and Tuesday. The decline accelerated late Monday, pushing the price from the mid-$73,000 range to $69,390 by Tuesday morning. It's the lowest level since the first week of April, when the asset was trading around $68,500. The pace caught many traders off guard — stop-losses were triggered in clusters, deepening the move.
The Strategy factor
The trigger, according to market participants, was a sale of 32 bitcoins by an entity publicly known as 'Strategy'. The size of the trade — roughly $2.2 million at current prices — is small by crypto standards. But in a market where liquidity has thinned in recent weeks, even modest sell orders can move prices disproportionately. Strategy's decision to sell drew attention because the firm had been a prominent holder since 2020. This week's sale is its first notable reduction in over a year.
Liquidation cascade
The 48-hour window saw $455 million in long positions liquidated across major exchanges, data shows. Most of the damage hit traders using 10x to 20x leverage. Binance and Bybit accounted for roughly 60% of the total. The liquidation volume was the highest since late April, when a similar slide liquidated $380 million. The speed of the deleveraging amplified the selloff: as prices fell, margin calls forced more sales, creating a feedback loop.
Market cap dips below $1.4 trillion
Bitcoin's total market capitalization briefly dipped below $1.4 trillion for the first time since mid-April. It has since recovered to about $1.38 trillion as of Tuesday afternoon. The figure had been hovering around $1.45 trillion for most of May. While the metric is largely symbolic, it reflects a broader loss of confidence in the short term.
Whether the sale of just 32 BTC was enough to ignite such a broad selloff — or whether it simply exposed weaker hands already on edge — remains the open question as traders watch for any repeat of the move.
