Bitcoin drops 7% to $95K amid $700M in liquidations

Bitcoin's (CRYPTO:BTC) price has experienced significant volatility, dipping nearly 7% and reaching an intraday low of $95,164 during early trading in Asia on January 8.

This sharp decline follows a brief surge on January 7, when the cryptocurrency surpassed $102,000 after gaining 10% over the previous week.

The recent price action places Bitcoin back within the rangebound channel it has been following since mid-December.

Despite the drop, the overall trend is still intact, as it has not fallen below key support levels.

Over the past 24 hours, the crypto market saw nearly $700 million in liquidations.

Approximately 235,000 traders were affected, with 90% of the liquidations coming from long positions, particularly in Bitcoin and Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) trades.

The largest liquidation order was on Binance, involving an ETH/USDT position valued at $17.7 million.

Market sentiment has soured in response to various factors.

A sharp correction in US stock markets, including significant drops in Nvidia and Tesla stocks, has contributed to the shift.

"Mainstream view is affected by the strong dollar and the decline of US stocks," noted derivatives provider Greeks Live, suggesting that the bull market for Bitcoin remains intact despite the turbulence.

Another catalyst for the market downturn was the release of hotter-than-expected US jobs data, which led to a pessimistic outlook among investors.

"This pushed investors over the edge to no longer expecting a high likelihood of rate cuts moving forward," Adam Cochran of CEHV remarked.

The altcoin market also faced heavy losses, with Ethereum falling 8% and dropping below $3,400.

Altcoins like Dogecoin (CRYPTO:DOGE), Avalanche (CRYPTO:AVAX), and others saw double-digit losses, contributing to a 7% drop in total market capitalisation, which now stands at $3.53 trillion.

At the time of reporting, the Bitcoin (BTC) price was $94,967.32.