Investing

Bitcoin's Correlation With S&P 500 Grows as Crypto Market Sees $1B+ in Liquidations

Tim Fries

Published: August 18, 2023 6:55 am

Last Updated: August 18, 2023 12:36 pm

Crypto investors experienced over $1 billion in liquidations over the past 24 hours amid a substantial spike in market volatility. The upheaval sent Bitcoin’s price tumbling to as low as $25,600, while the cryptocurrency’s correlation with equities recorded a new high.

OKX Sees the Highest Liquidations Among Crypto Exchanges

Bitcoin printed a new 1-month low on Friday as crypto markets witnessed $1.04 billion in liquidations due to extremely high volatility. The unfavorable market conditions drove BTC on a turbulent drive, pushing its price as low as $25,600 in the last 24 hours.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency recovered in the coming hours and stood at $26,451 at the time of writing. Out of more than $1 billion in liquidations, $836 million represented long positions while $205 million were shorts, CoinGlass data showed.

Among crypto exchanges, OKX accounted for the most significant portion of liquidations over this period, registering $308 million in liquidated long positions. Meanwhile, Binance accounted for $189 million for liquidated positions.

The crypto market downturn comes amid growing commotion in broader financial markets, triggered partly by the collapse of Chinese property giant Evergrande. The company filed for bankruptcy protection on Thursday in a New York court after becoming the world’s most heavily indebted property developer, with an estimated debt of more than $300 billion.

BTC and S&P 500 Correlation at 4-Month High

Amidst Bitcoin’s steep drop, the maiden cryptocurrency’s correlation with the S&P 500 stock index rose to 0.61 from -0.72 at the beginning of August. According to IntoTheBlock data, this is the highest correlation between BTC and equities since April 2023.

This refers to the statistical relationship between the price movements of Bitcoin and stocks. Notably, a positive correlation suggests that when the S&P 500 goes up or down, Bitcoin tends to follow a similar pattern, while a negative correlation implies that their price movements diverge.

BTC experienced flat price action over the past month, flirting with the $30,000 mark multiple times. However, the largest coin and the broader crypto market are now seeing increased volatility, possibly due to fears that interest rates may remain higher for a bit longer, in contrast to initial expectations.

Meanwhile, S&P 500 has also been trending down lately, losing more than 4% over the past month. Year-to-date, the performance of the benchmark equity index remains positive, soaring nearly 15% since January 1.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist