Bitcoin drops below $64,000 as bullish bets get wiped out over the weekend

Bitcoin fell below $66,000 on Saturday morning UTC as the selloff forced more bullish bets to close. By the afternoon, it traded near $65,500, leaving leveraged traders at risk of losing their positions before any rebound.

By Saturday evening, CryptoSlate data showed Bitcoin near the bottom of its rolling 24-hour range of $63,278 to $69,052 after finally losing $64,000.

CryptoSlate's Bitcoin price page puts the asset down 6.5% over 24 hours, 15.8% over seven days and 19.7% over 30 days. It recorded $31.59 billion in trailing 24-hour trading volume.

Leveraged longs face forced reductions

Newhedge's futures dashboard recorded a $919,774 Binance BTCUSDT long-liquidation event at $65,976 at 14:26 UTC on Nov. 14. It recorded another worth $781,412 at $65,892 at 14:39 UTC.

At 14:48 UTC, Newhedge recorded a $260,381 Bybit BTCUSDT long liquidation at $65,571. These are individual forced closures of bullish bets, not a market-wide liquidation total or the traders' net losses.

Unlike simply holding Bitcoin, a leveraged long can be reduced or closed when a falling price erodes the collateral supporting it. A later rebound does not reopen a liquidated position.

A futures position can be liquidated when the available collateral falls below the maintenance margin required to keep it open. The system initially attempts to reduce the deficit by offloading a position into the market using an Immediate or Cancel order.

Forced closures can add selling pressure as prices fall. The records do not establish what started Saturday's selloff or how much of the decline liquidations caused.

Even a recovery to $66,000 would leave Bitcoin below the roughly $69,225 close to the week. For leveraged bulls, the immediate challenge is keeping their positions open long enough to benefit from any recovery.