Bitcoin recovers above $61K after $1.6 billion in liquidations sweep the market

The session's defining event was a liquidation cascade — when leveraged positions get forcibly closed, the resulting sell pressure pushes prices lower, which triggers more closures in a chain reaction. That process wiped out $1.6 billion in positions across the market before Bitcoin stabilized and recovered above $61,000. Ethereum bore the brunt among large-cap assets, falling nearly 5% to $1,584, while Solana dropped 3.9% and XRP fell 2.4%. The backdrop made the cascade easier to trigger: the Fear & Greed index sits at 12 out of 100, deep in Extreme Fear territory, meaning the market had already been in a defensive posture before today's move. At that level, even moderate selling can accelerate quickly because fewer participants are willing to step in as buyers. Stellar was a notable exception, rising 6.8% to $0.2014 against the broader selloff — the researcher's data does not identify a specific catalyst, suggesting the move may be technical. Zcash's 17% rebound came on a clearer story: treasury firm Cypherpunk reaffirmed its plan to accumulate 5% of ZEC's total supply, providing a demand signal after the asset had been hammered earlier in the week by a separate bug disclosure.

• –Worldcoin's WLD token fell 20% after its founder Arthur Hayes sold his holdings a day after publicly stating he would continue holding — the reversal triggered a sharp selloff.
• –Cardano's ADA dropped below $0.20 for the first time in four years, even as social media activity around the project surged.
• –Zcash suffered a software bug disclosure earlier in the week that triggered over $100 million in liquidations and a selloff exceeding 50% in ZEC before today's partial recovery.