Bitcoin falls below $90,000... What's happening to the most popular cryptocurrency?

 

Bitcoin

Bitcoin falls below $90,000... What's happening to the most popular cryptocurrency?

The cryptocurrency market witnessed a significant decline as the price of Bitcoin fell below $90,000, before rebounding later. The decline was described as a strong corrective move that ended a short upward wave recorded by the market at the beginning of this year.

The wave resulted in massive sell-offs in the futures market, exceeding $465 million in just 24 hours.
After Bitcoin’s price rose from around $87,500 to nearly $94,500 between January 1 and 5, the largest digital asset in terms of market capitalization fell again, affected by profit-taking and selling pressures, which quickly affected the entire cryptocurrency market, which moved in the same direction, according to the French digital currency specialist, Journal de Coin.

As usual, Bitcoin led the downward trend, pushing most other cryptocurrencies into decline, while speculators in the futures market suffered significant losses, particularly those who bet on a continued rise using leverage.

Widespread liquidation in the futures market

According to data from the market tracking platform Coinglass, the value of liquidations in the cryptocurrency futures market exceeded $465 million during the past 24 hours.
The "long" buying positions were the most affected, with losses exceeding $420 million, compared to only about $45 million for the "short" selling positions.

The wave of liquidations included approximately 134,000 traders, while one of the major portfolios (known as "whales") recorded a significant loss of about $3.63 million in a Bitcoin-dollar transaction on the "Hyper Liquid" platform, reflecting the magnitude of the risks associated with trading using leverage during periods of extreme volatility.

Bitcoin and Ethereum lead the losses

Bitcoin speculators were the hardest hit, with net long positions on the currency amounting to about $137 million, out of a total of more than $145 million in netting within 24 hours.
Ethereum, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also saw significant liquidations, with speculators losing more than $103 million on buy positions, out of total losses exceeding $113 million when accounting for sell positions.

Is it a temporary correction or the beginning of a downward trend?
Despite the severity of this decline, some analysts believe that what happened was nothing more than a natural correction after a rapid upward trend, especially in light of the significant rise that the market recorded at the beginning of 2026.

This view is reinforced by the fact that, at the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin has returned to trading above the $90,000 level.
Market optimists are counting on the growing interest of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency sector, believing that this could support prices in the medium term and limit sharp downward waves.
However, the coming days will determine whether this decline is merely a temporary pause in an upward trend, or an indication of a return to the cautious atmosphere that prevailed in the markets at the end of 2025.