2023 is starting as a great year for cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin trading above $20,000 for the first time since FTX collapsed in November 2022.
The flagship digital asset is up 25.9% over the past 14 days and saw a rapid increase of 11% in the last 24 hours to cross the $20,000 mark. The impressive run saw it briefly trade above $21,000 during the early trading hours of January 14.
Apart from Bitcoin, other top crypto assets also posted impressive gains over the last 24 hours. Ethereum rose by 10% to over $1,500 for the first time since November. Others, like Binance-backed BNB, increased by 7%, while Ripple’s XRP surged by 7.4%. Cardano’s ADA, Polygon’s MATIC, and Solana’s SOL all saw double digits gains over the reporting period.
Meanwhile, the positive run has also led the global market cap for cryptocurrencies to cross the $1 trillion mark. In the last 24 hours, the crypto market cap was up by roughly 9%.
Over $700 Million in Short Positions Liquidated
The crypto market’s impressive price performance has led to massive losses for traders shorting the assets. Coinglass data shows that the total liquidation in the last 24 hours was $718.73 million.
According to the data, most of these liquidations came from short positions on the top two digital assets, Ethereum and Bitcoin. Ethereum’s liquidation was $258.08 million, while Bitcoin’s was $236.35 million. SOL also recorded $21.92 million in liquidation.
Most of the liquidations happened on OKX and Binance exchange. The two exchanges accounted for 75% of the liquidations. Huobi and Bybit also recorded significant liquidations among their traders.
With its impressive price performance, Bitcoin’s market cap crossed $400 million, placing it above tech giants like Tesla, Mastercard, and Facebook’s Meta.
According to available data, BTC is now the 18th most valuable asset by market cap. The cryptocurrency is behind traditional financial institution behemoth JPMorgan, tech companies NVIDIA, Microsoft, and others.
Meanwhile, the most valuable asset by market cap is the precious metal Gold, while iPhone producer Apple is the second most valuable asset.
Disclaimer
BeInCrypto has reached out to company or individual involved in the story to get an official statement about the recent developments, but it has yet to hear back.
