Markets • August 17, 2023, 6:28PM EDT Published 1 minute earlier on 
The Block
Quick Take
- The price of bitcoin and ether dropped sharply in minutes today as the crypto market finally saw a significant move.
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The price of bitcoin dropped sharply in minutes, falling as low as $25,166 on Binance, as the crypto market heads south.
The cryptocurrency, which had been stagnant around the $29,000 mark for weeks, saw slow declines during the course of the day before falling $2,300 in one rapid move. It’s now back up to $26,300.
While bitcoin had been down during most of the day, the steeper declines occurred shortly after reports that property developer China Evergrande had filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., stoking fears that troubles in China’s real estate markets could spread into other parts of the global economy.
The price of bitcoin fell by more than $1,000 in minutes. Image: Binance.
Similarly, the price of ether dropped from $1,700 to $1,550, according to Binance data, before rebounding to $1,600.
The price crash caused $805 million of liquidations, according to CoinGlass. That included $381 million of bitcoin liquidations and $247 million of ether liquidations. The majority of positions affected were long positions as the price dropped.
The entire cryptocurrency market cap is down from $1.18 trillion to $1.14 trillion today.
