Bitcoin (BTC) sank past the $82,000 threshold on Monday evening, alongside a widespread retreat across major digital currencies as crypto liquidations mounted rapidly.
According to The Block’s crypto price tracker, the premier digital asset retreated 2.8% over the preceding 24 hours to land at $81,382 by 9:20 p.m. ET Monday, falling away from earlier daily levels near $84,200. Ethereum Ethereum (ETH) dropped by 4.6% to reach $2,425.
Among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, Zcash recorded the most severe drop, trading lower by 10.4% at $1,149. Meanwhile, Solana dropped 7.5% and XRP decreased by 6.4%.
This market downturn coincided with crypto liquidations reaching $771 million throughout the past 24 hours, which included $685.6 million tied to long positions, based on CoinGlass data. Over the trailing 12-hour window, aggregate liquidations hit $631.8 million, with long positions accounting for $600 million.
Liquidations happen when a trader’s holdings in a specific market get forcibly closed out because of heavy losses or a failure to maintain adequate margin for maintenance requirements. These liquidation totals are normally derived from publicly accessible metrics, which could significantly under-report the true scale of market liquidations.
South Korea spillover
Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, told The Block that “Bitcoin’s downward correction points to a combination of macroeconomic headwinds, waning institutional demand, and risk-averse positioning ahead of upcoming U.S. inflation figures.”
John added that “Elevated Treasury yields alongside a stronger dollar are putting pressure on risk appetite, while roughly $600 million in spot BTC ETF withdrawals point to declining institutional inflows.”
Data from SoSoValue data shows that U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds registered $681.1 million in net outflows over the previous week, marking their worst weekly performance since late June. Similarly, Spot Ethereum ETFs experienced $542 million in net outflows during the same period.
At the same time, South Korean equities experienced a sharp sell-off on Tuesday morning in Asia, with the Kospi index plunging 6.1% as of 10:45 a.m. local time. Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine, stated on X that the substantial drop in Korean stocks might be “spilling over into crypto.”
Min Jung, a research associate at Presto Research, noted that “Selling pressure within U.S. technology equities, particularly across the semiconductor and memory segments, has bled into Asian markets, driving South Korea’s Kospi down by approximately 6% and activating a sell-side circuit breaker.”
Price Performance (The Block)
Justin d’Anethan, the head of research at Arctic Digital, expressed that “Ultimately, this recent decline does not invalidate the establishment of a bottom or the broader bull market that crypto investors might currently inhabit; it merely indicates some readjustment and perhaps the development of a fresh support area.”
Earlier on Monday, Michael Saylor’s Strategy revealed that it purchased an additional 250 BTC for roughly $21.5 million, securing an average price of $86,194 per bitcoin between October 5 and October 11. Furthermore, Bitmine Immersion Technologies announced on Monday that it expanded its Ethereum reserves to 6,028,946 ETH after gathering 12,532 tokens over the past week.
This article was updated to incorporate further commentary from analysts.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-10-12-bitcoin-slides-crypto-liquidations-surge-418374.
