Bitcoin had a rough start to the year, as the token’s prices fluctuated mostly through the first half of 2024. However, the year's second half was much more favorable for the king of crypto. The latter part of 2024 came with a lot of surprises for Bitcoin. First, there was an incredible price surge, and eventually, the coin broke the $100,000 mark. But Bitcoin’s latest surprise is a less positive one amidst a seemingly frenzied market.

While analysts were hoping for a Santa rally for the crypto market as Christmas approaches, the market has recorded unpleasant news. Reports show that more than $1 billion was liquidated in the crypto market in 24 hours. 

Data from Coinglass showed that about 1.02 billion dollars were liquidated from the crypto market in 24 hours on the 19th of December. The report also indicates that about $856.7 million from that figure was from long positions. 

This news comes as a shock as the crypto market in recent weeks has put on a strong display with coins like Bitcoin beating expectations. The reported liquidation caught many off their guard since no one saw this coming. However, despite the bad news, some analysts believe this negative activity won’t last long. 

Pav Hundal, lead analyst at Swyftx, in an interview with Cointelegraph, stated:

It’s not the start of the Christmas run-in we’d hoped for, but it looks like short-term angst.

Despite Hundal’s attempts at reassuring the market, Bitcoin’s price has gone down by 3.36% in the same period. At the time of this writing, Bitcoin is trading at $94,407 according to CoinMarketCap data, which is some miles below the $100,000 mark the coin reached recently.

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BTC 7-Day Chart. Source: CoinMarketCap

Needless to say, this news has generated some market frenzy. However, it wouldn’t be the first time this month that Bitcoin’s sudden price drop below $100k has caused many traders to pull out of long positions.

A sudden 5.47% dip earlier on December 5 was reported to have wiped out a massive $300 million in mere minutes. But there are even more recent examples. December 10 came with a sudden crypto market drawdown, in which more than $1.7 billion was liquidated in just 24 hours. This was the biggest liquidation this cycle has seen so far, according to CoinGlass, but steadily, the market has rebounded each time to become stronger.

The recent developments in liquidations and Bitcoin prices have generated differing reactions from crypto analysts. 

Hundal remains optimistic as he believes the “Santa rally” is still coming. 

In similar good spirits, Real Vision chief crypto analyst Jamie Coutts said in an X post on December 20 that a buying opportunity may be incoming. Crypto analyst Caleb Franzen also described the volatility as the typical behavior we have seen time and again whenever there’s a bull run without cause for concern.

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