The crypto market opened the week with sharp declines, as bitcoin, ethereum and XRP hit multi-week lows. Over $1.7B in leveraged positions were liquidated, sparking manipulation claims and shifting market caps across top assets.
Over $1.7B Liquidated as Crypto Prices Slide; XRP Loses Third Spot to USDT
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Market Opens Week With Broad Declines
The crypto economy opened the new week in the red, with bitcoin (BTC) briefly tumbling to $111,986, its lowest price since Sept. 10. Ethereum (ETH) plunged to $4,059, its lowest point in over 30 days, before recovering to trade just below $4,200 as of 1:37 a.m. EST on Sept. 22.
XRP briefly fell to $2.69, its lowest price since July 11, before settling at around $2.78. This decline saw its market capitalization drop to $167 billion, causing it to relinquish its third-place ranking to USDT, which recently saw its market cap top $172 billion. The bearish sentiment also hit BNB, which had set a new all-time high of $1,072 just hours earlier. Data shows that BNB was trading at around $1,009, down 5.5% in 24 hours.
Meanwhile, other high-capitalization altcoins like DOGE, ADA, and LINK saw even steeper declines, dropping by 11.4%, 9.8% and 10.5%, respectively. The rest of the high-cap altcoin market also saw 24-hour losses ranging between 5% and 10%. Consequently, the market capitalization of the entire crypto economy plunged to just below $4 trillion.
Mass Liquidations and Allegations of Manipulation
The swift decline across most digital assets wiped out $1.7 billion in leveraged positions, liquidating some 406,202 traders. As expected, liquidated long positions accounted for $1.62 billion of the total. A Coinglass 24-hour liquidation heatmap showed significant liquidations across the market, with the largest amounts on ETH ($495.10 million) and BTC ($283.86 million). Other altcoins also saw major liquidations, including SOL ($95.38 million), XRP ($78.97 million) and DOGE ($62.20 million).
This market pullback has sparked speculation and allegations of manipulation. Crypto commentator Marty Party claimed that centralized exchanges had profited significantly from the market downturn.
“Exchanges profited $631m on that flush of the perpetual futures market. They will buy their own token with the profits. That’s their game until regulators make it illegal,” Marty Party said in a post on X.
