Bitcoin loses 50-week moving average as 24-hour crypto long liquidations top $1 billion

Bitcoin (BTC) closed below its 50-week moving average on Sunday for the first time in eight weeks, before briefly falling below $74,000 into Monday morning as more than $1 billion in crypto long positions were liquidated in 24 hours.Total liquidations exceeded $1.15 billion, including $1.04 billion in longs and $117 million in shorts, according to CoinGlass data. Ether traders accounted for over $500 million in liquidations, compared with around $309 million for bitcoin, with CoinGlass recording a total of 167,764 traders liquidated during the period. The largest individual order was a $48.2 million ETH-USDT long on Binance, according to the platform. Liquidation data is imperfect, with Binance and OKX still underreporting in incomplete bursts, for example, so total amounts are likely to be higher.U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs also ended the week with $1.28 billion in net outflows, the most since late June, The Block reported on Saturday. The 12 funds lost money on four of the five trading days last week and flipped negative for the year, with a combined total of $914.1 million in net outflows for 2026. BlackRock's IBIT alone shed $403 million on Friday.Previous recoveriesAlex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy, noted that bitcoin closed the week at around 0.7% below its 50-week moving average of $75,488. Bitcoin previously reclaimed the level on Sept. 20 and held above it for seven consecutive weeks before Sunday's close.Thorn looked back at the 2011-2012 and 2019-2020 bear market recoveries, when bitcoin also lost the 50-week average after initially getting back above it. In the first case, bitcoin spent another 20 weeks below the line and fell as much as 35% beneath it. In 2019-2020, bitcoin fell back below the average five times, including an eight-week stretch during the Covid crash. Nevertheless, in both cases, the earlier bear market low held on a weekly closing basis, he said.However, Thorn noted that his sample covered just five reclaims and that the bottom is only known in hindsight. Bitcoin's previous low for the current cycle was $59,517 on June 28, with the firm arguing last month that the bear market was over."We believe the bottom is in, selling pressure has diminished, the debasement case has strengthened, and the crowd has left," Thorn wrote at the time. "Our conclusion is simple: we believe now is an attractive time to buy and hold bitcoin."Thorn said on Monday that his bullish technical case from October would remain valid if bitcoin regained the 50-week average within a month.