Bitcoin recovers after $813 million liquidation wave

Bitcoin briefly fell below $81,000 before rising to $83,139.22, up 0.56% over 24 hours on Tuesday. The recovery followed a sharp decline in cryptocurrency derivatives that forced traders to close leveraged positions.

CoinGlass data showed $812.9 million in crypto liquidations over the previous 24 hours, affecting 170,209 traders. Long positions accounted for $686.72 million, or 84.5% of the total. Short-position liquidations reached $126.19 million.

Bitcoin accounted for $192.14 million in liquidations, with long positions making up nearly 74% of its total. Ethereum followed with $180.5 million, and Solana recorded $60.85 million. The largest single liquidation was a $9.65 million Bitcoin long position on Binance.

South Korea’s KOSPI fell as much as 7.4% before recovering some losses to close at 6,035.35. The index briefly dropped below 6,000, triggering a sell-side trading curb. Samsung Electronics declined 7.39%, while SK Hynix fell 10.09%. Both stocks recorded a fifth consecutive session of losses.

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix account for about half of the KOSPI’s market capitalization. Foreign investors sold approximately 4.5 trillion won ($3.35 billion) of South Korean equities on Tuesday, extending withdrawals from the country’s technology sector.

Paradis Labs attributed the decline to continued selling of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix by foreign institutions. The firm described the strategy as “Sell Korea, Buy US” and said some domestic investors moved funds from memory-chip companies into financial stocks.

Broadcom Chief Executive Hock Tan recently compared speculative artificial-intelligence investment with gambling. South Korean chipmakers also faced pressure after China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies announced a DRAM architecture that could reduce memory-cell area by about 30%. ChangXin plans to introduce products using the technology by the end of 2026, although commercial production at scale has not been established.

Bitunix analysts linked the broader correction to financing risks and concentrated investor positions in the AI industry. They said lower leverage and weaker support from share buybacks may have increased selling pressure despite strong semiconductor earnings.

The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index fell 2.7% on Monday, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 declined 1.8% on Tuesday. BlackRock lowered U.S. equities from overweight to neutral and increased its preference for short-term U.S. Treasuries.

CryptoQuant analyst JA Maartunn reported that Bitcoin’s Net Taker Volume had turned negative again, indicating that aggressive selling in derivatives markets exceeded aggressive buying. The market is awaiting Wednesday’s U.S. inflation report.