Bitcoin (BTC) liquidated billions of dollars going into Friday as BTC price action set bearish records.
Key points:
Bitcoin liquidates $2.6 billion as it sees its first red $10,000 daily candle ever.
BTC price action dives further in percentage terms than on any day since the 2022 bear market.
It may take until 2028 for Bitcoin to return above $93,500 again.
Bitcoin seals biggest daily dollar rout in history
Data from TradingView showed BTC/USD consolidating after bouncing from $59,930 — its first trip below the $60,000 mark since October 2024.
Sustained selling pressure during Thursday’s US trading session eventually sparked a liquidation cascade, with $2.6 billion in crypto positions wiped out over 24 hours, per data from CoinGlass.
Commenting, crypto market participants noted that the liquidation tally had surpassed both the COVID-19 crash from March 2020 and the reaction to the implosion of exchange FTX in late 2022.
COVID crash: $1.2B in liquidations.
FTX crash: $1.5B in liquidations.
Random Thursday (today): $1.7B in liquidations. pic.twitter.com/iY1vaYCjnd
— Alex Mason 👁△ (@AlexMasonCrypto) February 5, 2026
Bitcoin price action also brought back historical bear-market records elsewhere.
In percentage terms, Thursday’s daily candle was the largest daily decline since the FTX debacle — an event that sparked the bear-market low of $15,600.
“The ETF holders have never experienced this kind of sell-off,” Joe Consorti, head of growth at Bitcoin equity company Horizon, responded on X, referring to institutional investors with exposure to the US spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
They saw net outflows of $434 million on Thursday, per data from UK-based investment firm Farside Investors.
BTC/USD, meanwhile, achieved an unenviable new feat, falling by more than $10,000 in a day for the first time.
“Yesterday was the highest volume day on $BTC since August 2024,” trader Jelle added.
“One for the history books.”
BTC price “trend reversal,” only in 2028?
In a grim outlook for Bitcoin bulls, crypto trader and analyst Rekt Capital said that it could be 2028 before a true rebound occurs.
Related: Will Bitcoin rebound to $90K by March? Here’s what BTC options say
Using the BTC price cycle model as a guide, including a key moving average crossover at the end of January, Rekt Capital foresees a classic bear market year for 2026.
“Looks like it indeed is the year of the Bitcoin Bear Market,” he wrote in an X post.
“2027 will be the Bottoming Out year for BTC. And 2028 will be the Trend Reversal year where $93500 would be finally broken.”
A separate post warned of “bearish acceleration” on BTC/USD, again mimicking the 2022 bear market.
#BTC
The Bearish Acceleration phase of the Bitcoin cycle is in progress$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin https://t.co/5H7VPvksnH pic.twitter.com/XnPU3FeNhO
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) February 5, 2026
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