Why is Bitcoin down? BTC traders eye $55K amid sell-offs

Bitcoin’s recent price changes have spurred heated debates within the crypto community. The drastic fall from $70,000 to the lower $63,000 range has traders worried.

Bitcoin tanked and created a sell-off in global markets exacerbated by Middle East geopolitical tensions.

BTC fell as low as $62,500 in late U.S. trading hours on Thursday, then recovered and traded slightly under $64,000 at 6:30 UTC, around its 50-day moving average, which remains a tactical support line for some traders.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is worth $64,358.44, down 0.1% from an hour ago and 0.1% in the last 24 hours. The value of BTC today is 4.3% lower than it was 7 days ago.

The global crypto market cap is $2.4 trillion today, down 0.72% in the last 24 hours. Today, BTC has a market cap of $1.27 trillion, reflecting a 52.92% market dominance. Meanwhile, stablecoins’ market cap is $164 billion, accounting for 6.8% of the total crypto market cap.

At this point, crypto traders are preparing for the worst in August. August is considered one of the two worst months for BTC. Over the last 13 years, BTC has finished the month up five times and down eight times. The average decline was 15.4%, while the average increase was 26%.

On the other hand, 88,631 traders were liquidated in the last 24 hours, totaling $253.53 million. The greatest single liquidation order was on OKX—ETH-USD-SWAP, worth $3.90 million. In the last hour alone, memecoin traders have been liquidated the most.

Ethereum (ETH), the second largest crypto by market cap, is currently worth  $3,148.68, down 1.0% in the last 24 hours. 

Bitcoin options expiry today could tant the price further

Around 37,000 Bitcoin options contracts will expire on Friday, August 2, with a notional value of approximately $2.4 billion. The options expiry event is less than last week’s end-of-month event but slightly greater than the usual expiry.

Today’s expiring BTC derivatives have a put/call ratio of 0.58, implying that nearly twice as many long or call contracts as shorts or puts will expire. The maximum pain, or the point at which most losses will occur, is $66,000, which is greater than current market prices.

According to Deribit, open interest, or the value or number of contracts yet to expire, remains very strong at the $70,000 strike price, which contains $846 million in OI.

In addition to today’s Bitcoin options expiry, approximately 180,000 Ethereum options expire with a notional value of $600 million, bringing the total value of crypto derivatives to $3 billion. The ETH contracts feature a put/call ratio of 0.55, with a maximum pain point of $3,300.