Bitcoin Falls Below $84,000 as Crypto Liquidations Hit $550M

Bitcoin fell below $84,000 on Wednesday, reaching $83,560 before recovering to around $84,000. The cryptocurrency was down about 1.8% over 24 hours.

Bitcoin dropped as much as 2.3% across two hourly candles. Its 21-day simple moving average stood near $83,850 and held as short-term support.

Selling followed a failed attempt to move above $86,500 on Tuesday. Sell orders had increased on exchange order books around that price, limiting Bitcoin’s advance. Crypto long liquidations totaled about $550 million over 24 hours, according to market data.

Onchain data showed that four wallets opened short positions totaling 148.49 Bitcoin with 40x leverage on Hyperliquid shortly before the decline. The positions were funded with USD Coin, a stablecoin designed to track the U.S. dollar. The data does not establish whether the trades caused the sell-off.

Open interest began rising after leveraged long positions were liquidated. Data from 21 exchanges showed open interest increasing from about $54.2 billion to $55.3 billion over six hours, between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. UTC. Open interest measures the total value of outstanding derivatives contracts.

Bitcoin’s 21-day moving average remains a level watched by traders. A break below it could put $82,500 in focus. That price is linked to an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern forming on Bitcoin’s weekly chart. Bitcoin last traded near $82,500 on Sept. 28.

In a post on X, trader and analyst Rekt Capital wrote that Bitcoin would need to close a daily or three-day candle above $86,700 to confirm a continuation of its recent advance. “At the moment, Bitcoin is lacking that lower timeframe confirmation relative to this key level for continuation,” he wrote.