Bitcoin climbs back above $63,500 as market volatility causes spike in liquidations

The price of bitcoin climbed back above the $63,500 mark during early-day trading on Wednesday, after a volatile 24 hours that saw the digital asset's price drop to a recent low of $69,900.

The value of the largest cryptocurrency by market cap increased over 1% in the past 24 hours, trading at $63,559 at 7:50 a.m. ET, according to The Block's Price Page .

The price action over the past day led to substantial liquidations of both long and short positions on centralized exchanges. This volatility resulted in the liquidation of more than $150 million in bitcoin positions, with over $78 million bitcoin longs and over $72 million shorts liquidated, according to CoinGlass data .

The second-largest crypto,  ether , experienced a muted 0.3% increase over the past day — now standing at $3,262 at 7:48 a.m. ET. However, SOL, the native coin of the Solana network remains in the red, falling over 2% in the same period, according to The Block’s Prices Page .

The overall crypto market experienced over $275 million in liquidated long positions in the last 24 hours, contributing to a total of $428 million in liquidations across various centralized exchanges, the data show.

Liquidations occur when a trader’s position is forcibly closed due to a lack of funds to cover losses. This happens when market movements are unfavorable to the trader’s position, leading to the depletion of their initial margin or collateral.