Bitcoin Price Continues Its Rapid Drop – What’s Driving BTC’s Decline? What Does the Latest Liquidation Data Show?

The world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is experiencing a downward wave today and is trading at $82,400 at the time of writing, with a decrease of approximately 4% in the last 24 hours.

BTC fiyatının gün içerisindeki hareketini gösteren grafik.

The increased volatility marks the most significant turbulence since December, when Bitcoin’s price surged on speculation about Trump’s return to the White House and his pro-crypto stance. However, unlike the upward momentum last December, Bitcoin’s price has been on a downward trend, losing over 15% in the past month.

The latest price swings come as Trump signed an executive order establishing the Strategic Crypto Reserve. The order mandates a full accounting of the U.S. government’s digital asset holdings, including an estimated 200,000 BTC worth around $17 billion. The administration has ensured that these assets will not be sold, with Trump’s Crypto Chief David Sacks likening the reserve to a “digital Fort Knox.”

In addition to the executive order, Trump held a “crypto summit” with industry leaders including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi. Despite these moves indicating increased institutional recognition of Bitcoin, the market reaction was bearish, suggesting that investors were either waiting for the reserve announcement or found the details insufficient. Trump first floated the idea of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in July of last year.

Nick Ruck, director of LVRG Research, said investors are likely “disappointed” that the reserve will be funded by Bitcoin seized through criminal or civil asset seizures rather than direct government purchases.

Bitcoin's decline and increased volatility coincided with a broader market sell-off triggered by new tariffs announced by the Trump administration.

Along with the declines, there were serious liquidations in the entire cryptocurrency market. According to the data, the cryptocurrency market experienced a liquidation of $423 million, $387 million of which were in long positions.

Graph showing liquidations in the cryptocurrency market in the last 24 hours.

The largest liquidations were seen in Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Dogecoin.

*This is not investment advice.