Is Bitcoin’s Q3 Curse Real? Crypto Market Takes a $279 Million Hit

• Over $279 million was liquidated in the crypto market, with 89,872 traders affected.
• The single-largest liquidation occurred on OKX on the ETH-USDT-SWAP.
• Crypto analyst Ali Martinez cautioned investors about BTC’s performance in Q3s.

The crypto market experienced a sharp price crash in the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin (BTC) dipping to $67,000, resulting in $279 million in liquidations, according to Coinglass data.

In the past 12 hours, $116.01 million was liquidated, with $28.45 million liquidated in just four hours. In the past hour alone, liquidations totaled $4.20 million, according to Coinglass data . Over 89,872 traders were liquidated, with the single-largest liquidation occurring on OKX’s ETH-USDT-SWAP, valued at $5.21 million.

Crypto analyst Ali Martinez noted on X (formerly Twitter) that Bitcoin has “historically underperformed in Q3, with an average return of 6.49% and a median return of -2.57%,” suggesting a potential for sluggish price movement in the crypto market.

Bitcoin fell 11.5% in Q3 2023, 22.8% in Q3 2019, 10% in Q3 2015, and 39.7% in Q3 2014. However, it rallied 25% in Q3 2021, 17.9% in Q3 2020, 80% in Q3 2017, and 40% in 2013. While the median return for Bitcoin in the third quarter historically stands at -2.57%, the average return is 6.49%.

According to CoinMarketCap data , Bitcoin has declined 5.34% in the past seven days but has gained more than 10% in 30 days. Despite multiple attempts, Bitcoin has been unable to break above its all-time high of $73,000, reached in March.

Notably, the US CPI came out to 3.3% while the expected rate was 3.4%. Santiment stated that if the US CPI comes out lower, the price of the leading digital asset will see a surge in the short term and once again make an attempt towards the $70,000 price level. 

Interestingly, the performance of the cryptocurrency is affected heavily by the CPI rates and the decisions of the United States Federal Reserve.