Soaring Bitcoin prices liquidate $272M, pushes Tether USDT supply above 90B Soaring Bitcoin prices liquidate $272M, pushes Tether USDT supply above 90B
Observers have suggested that USDT's increasing supply indicates an improving liquidity for the crypto market.
2 min read
Updated: Dec. 6, 2023 at 2:15 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
Cryptoc traders experienced liquidations worth more than $260 million during the last 24 hours due to the surging value of digital asset prices.
Data from CoinGlass reveals that most of these liquidated positions, valued at around $170 million, belonged to shorts—traders who speculated on price declines. This marks the fourth-largest sum of short liquidations recorded in a single day within the last four months.
Bitcoin (BTC) traders bore the brunt of the losses. Short traders lost almost $92 million as the digital asset’s value briefly surpassed $44,000 following the continued optimism surrounding a possible spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the U.S. The flagship asset’s value has since retraced to $43,719 as of press time, according to CryptoSlate’s data.
Traders betting against Ethereum (ETH) rise also experienced approximately $35 million in liquidations. During the reporting period, ETH’s price touched a new yearly high above $2250, marking its highest level since Terra’s shock collapse last year.
Other traders holding short positions against alternative cryptocurrencies like Solana, XRP, Dogecoin, and ORDI also recorded substantial losses during the reporting period.
Across exchanges, Binance and OKX recorded the most significant liquidations, as short traders lost almost $110 million on these platforms.
Tether spikes above 90B
The rallying crypto market also resulted in Tether’s USDT stablecoin supply breaching a new all-time high of 90 billion, according to CryptoSlate’s data.
In November, USDT’s circulating supply increased by 4.5 billion amid the growing market optimism for a spot ETF. CryptoSlate Insight revealed a substantial 96% correlation between the circulating supply of USDT and Bitcoin’s price movement throughout the period.
Observers have suggested that this influence on Bitcoin’s price may become more significant as USDT supply grows.
USDT’s increasing supply also indicates an improving liquidity for the crypto market as more capital enters the ecosystem. In a recent note to investors, Markus Thielen, the head of research at Matrixport, said:
“The most important chart and signal is the daily minting from Tether, which shows that nearly $7 billion is being moved into crypto. This flow is front-running the Bitcoin spot ETF approval and driving crypto prices higher.”
Correction at 14:15: an earlier version of this article headline stated Tether supply was $90 million. It has been corrected to reflect it’s $90 billion.
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Oluwapelumi Adejumo
Oluwapelumi values Bitcoin's potential. He imparts insights on a range of topics like DeFi, hacks, mining and culture, underlining transformative power.
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Liam 'Akiba' Wright
Also known as "Akiba," Liam is a reporter, editor and podcast producer at CryptoSlate. He believes that decentralized technology has the potential to make widespread positive change.
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Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Ethereum
$3,165.14
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Solana
$133.955
Solana is a high-performance blockchain platform that utilizes a unique consensus algorithm called “Proof of History” to achieve fast transaction speeds and low fees.
Dogecoin
$0.14002
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency created in December 2013 as a joke by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer.
XRP
$0.51677
The XRP Ledger is a decentralized cryptographic ledger powered by a network of peer-to-peer servers.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
OKX
OKX is a world-leading digital asset exchange, providing advanced financial services to global traders by using blockchain technology.
Matrixport
Matrixport is a Singapore-based financial services platform that specializes in digital asset management and cryptocurrency services.
Markus Thielen is currently the Head of Research & Strategy at Matrixport, a one-stop digital assets financial services platform where users can invest, trade, and leverage crypto assets.