Bitcoin Retreats to $35K USD as Whales Execute Significant Sell-Off

Bitcoin’s price witnessed a sharp decline, plummeting by $1,000 within a single hour, as a cascade of liquidations targeted late Bitcoin long positions. On November 14, the cryptocurrency tested the $35,000 support level at the daily close, succumbing to sell-side pressure and hitting multi-day lows.

Market data from TradingView reflected the rapid retreat in BTC price, with a swift drop of over $1,000 in a single hourly candle. Despite the downturn, the largest cryptocurrency managed to find support at the $35,000 mark, acting as a springboard for recovery to approximately $35,600 at the time of reporting.

Interestingly, the market volatility followed what initially seemed to be positive news for Bitcoin and the crypto sector, as United States inflation slowed beyond expectations. However, analysts observed a lack of interest in purchasing BTC at previous levels, particularly among larger investors, despite the coin reaching 18-month highs.

$BTC
once again spot buying on long liquidations & deleveraging

overall though still want to see more of a spot premium

spot premium & spot driven uptrend is what you want to see pic.twitter.com/VoXrWQDGMc

— Skew Δ (@52kskew) November 14, 2023

Social media commentator Ali pointed out a significant development, noting that Bitcoin whales had begun booking profits on November 3, when BTC’s price surged from $35,000 to nearly $38,000. More than 15 wallets holding over 1,000 BTC each either sold or redistributed their holdings, as indicated by an accompanying chart from on-chain analytics firm Glassnode, revealing that the number of whale wallets had reached its lowest point in about a month.

Following the inflation data, Material Indicators, a monitoring resource, emphasized the importance of anticipating downside movements within the broader Bitcoin uptrend. Despite a positive reaction to the Core Inflation Report, the commentary cautioned against expecting an uninterrupted “up only” trajectory, emphasizing the market’s tendency to test patience and conviction.

Related: BlackRock’s Insights on the Risks Associated with Spot Bitcoin ETFs

A subsequent update from Material Indicators showed bid support shifting closer to the spot price, ranging from $33,000 to $34,500, while whales continued to offload their holdings. Interestingly, traders appeared to be caught off guard by the reversal, with on-chain monitoring resource CoinGlass reporting the highest volume of daily long BTC liquidations in several months, totaling $120 million on November 14.

#FireCharts shows all order classes selling #BTC as price breaks below the $35.5k range.

Meanwhile ~$9M in #BTC bid liquidity has just moved up from $33k to $34.5k. pic.twitter.com/DIfayNHYC7

— Material Indicators (@MI_Algos) November 14, 2023

This figure was nearly equivalent to the short BTC liquidations accompanying last week’s spike to $38,000. Additionally, cross-crypto longs faced liquidations amounting to almost $300 million.