Bitcoin Falls Below $70,000 as Crypto Selloff Deepens Overnight

Bitcoin (BTC) fell below $70,000, while Ether (ETH) traded below $2,000 as a crypto market selloff accelerated. Futures liquidations also mounted, adding forced position closures in leveraged trading to the declines across the two assets.

An earlier 24-hour liquidation tally stood at $680.81 million as of 8:54 p.m. ET Thursday. Bitcoin positions accounted for $325.28 million of that amount. The tally covered crypto futures liquidations over the preceding 24 hours.

A liquidation occurs when an exchange automatically closes a leveraged trade after a trader's margin falls short of what is needed to keep the position open. These forced exits show that futures positions are being closed during the market decline.

The $680.81 million figure is a time-specific snapshot ending at 8:54 p.m. ET, rather than a full-day total for Thursday. Bitcoin made up nearly half of the earlier crypto-wide count, while Ether also moved below a key round-number threshold during the selloff.