Crypto market slides as bitcoin sees sharpest one-day drop since March

Cryptocurrencies extended their decline over the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin witnessing its biggest single-day fall since March. The overall crypto market capitalisation has now slipped below $3 trillion, from the $4.4 trillion all-time high reached earlier this year, signalling a strong pullback in investor interest.

Analysts pointed out that money is visibly moving away from digital assets. More than $16 million worth of Bitcoin long positions were liquidated over the last day, while total exchange liquidations jumped to about $400 million. Futures volumes and open interest have also dropped. The trend suggests that “money seems to be rotating out… and not staying in crypto,” traders noted.

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The selloff in crypto has resumed in December amid weakness across broader financial markets. Digital asset-linked stocks in Asian markets also tumbled after the People’s Bank of China warned about illegal activities involving digital currencies, triggering selling in regional exchanges.

Investors are also watching the Bank of Japan, where rising bond yields at 15-year highs are fuelling caution. Any shift in Japanese interest rates could impact global liquidity and add pressure to speculative assets.

Despite the decline, leveraged positions remain large, posing a risk of further downside. Some crypto futures markets show leverage levels as high as 200 times, while estimated outstanding leverage across Bitcoin products is near $787 billion. Exchange-traded products hold another $135 billion in open positions.

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If these leveraged trades unwind, the fall “could be even deeper.”

Bitcoin, Ether and Polygon have dropped 20–30% over the last month. Other top tokens, including Cardano, Solana and Binance Coin, are down 13–30%. Weekly and year-to-date returns have slipped into negative territory for many large-cap cryptocurrencies.

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