The cryptocurrency market witnessed significant turbulence shortly after U.S. President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential election.
Within a 30-minute window, nearly $67 million in leveraged long positions were liquidated according to CoinGlass data. This sudden market movement occurred between 5:30 PM and 6:00 PM UTC on July 21, triggered by a sharp 2.3% drop in Bitcoin’s (BTC) price, which fell from $67,713 to $65,880 according to CoinMarketCap data.
However, the market quickly rebounded, with Bitcoin reaching a 24-hour high of $68,480. This rapid recovery led to losses for traders with leveraged short positions, totaling approximately $34 million.
Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, told Cointelegraph that Biden’s withdrawal might have initially been perceived as increasing Donald Trump’s chances of victory. He said:
Biden was not credible to beat Trump so an alternative candidate could have limited Trump’s chances. […] But there is no credible alternative… hence BTC pump.
Any news about Trump’s odds of winning the election is seen as positive for the cryptocurrency industry by many. The reason is largely that he positioned himself as the pro-crypto candidate and has recently gone as far as to say that he wants all Bitcoin going forward to be mined in the United States.
Over a broader 12-hour period on July 21, the cryptocurrency market saw total liquidations of $134.5 million, with $81.1 million in long positions and $53.4 million in short positions being wiped out. This marks the highest liquidation volume in a 12-hour span since July 8.
The liquidations primarily affected Bitcoin ($43.8 million), Ethereum (ETH) ($31.1 million), and Solana (SOL) ($8.6 million). Major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and OKX bore the brunt of these liquidations, handling $64.5 million and $44 million respectively.
As the political landscape shifts, Vice President Kamala Harris is now considered the likely Democratic nominee for the upcoming presidential election. As of press time, Bitcoin is trading at $67,055, showing a 0.17% decrease over the past 24 hours.
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