First Mover: Crypto Futures Saw Record $10B Worth of Liquidations
  Everything you need to make sense of the crypto markets and beyond By the CoinDesk Markets Team Edited by Lawrence Lewitinn, Managing Editor, Global Capital Markets April 19, 2021 Sponsored by  (Price data as of April 19 @11:00 UTC) If you were forwarded this newsletter and would like to receive it, sign up here.
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Crypto Futures Saw Record $10B Worth of Liquidations
The crypto futures market saw the highest amount of liquidations in history on Sunday, as the sudden bitcoin (BTC) price pullback caught overleveraged traders off guard.
Exchanges offering crypto futures liquidated $10 billion worth of positions on Sunday, toppling the previous market-wide record of $5.77 billion registered on Feb. 23, according to data provider bybt.
Forced closure of long positions or bullish trades accounted for $9.26 billion or over 90% of total liquidations, which shows that the leverage was excessively skewed bullish across the board.
Bitcoin futures accounted for more than 50% of total market-wide liquidations on Sunday. Liquidations happen when trades cannot fulfill margin requirements for holding long/short positions and often exacerbate bullish/bearish moves.
 Crypto futures liquidations (Source: bybt)
Bitcoin dropped sharply from $60,000 to $52,148 early Sunday, dragging alternative cryptocurrencies lower. As prices started falling, margin requirements increased, and exchanges liquidated longs (squared off with offsetting shorts), adding to downward pressure in the market.
The massive forced closure of longs pushed bitcoin futures into backwardation – a market condition where futures trade at a discount to the spot price.
 Bitcoin futures three-month rolling futures basis (spread between futures and spot prices) (Source: Skew)
As seen above, bitcoin futures listed on Binance and Kraken traded at a bigger discount than the ones listed on other exchanges, showing the dump mainly happened on Binance and Kraken.
The situation has normalized with futures drawing higher prices than the spot price. Bitcoin is currently trading near $56,700 – up 8% from Sunday's low, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
The cryptocurrency may have received a boost from signs of China is softening its stance on cryptocurrencies. On Sunday, Li Bo, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, called bitcoin and stablecoins "investment alternatives".
Read the original story here: Crypto Futures Saw Record $10B Worth of Liquidations on Sunday
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Technician's Take by Damanick Dantes Bitcoin Stabilizes After Weekend Selloff; Resistance Around $59K The near 15% price drop in bitcoin (BTC) over the weekend triggered oversold readings on intraday charts. Buyers were able to maintain short-term support around $55,000, although there is strong resistance around $58,000-$59,000.  The four-hour BTC chart shows resistance levels and RSI (Source: TradingView)
Original story found here: Bitcoin Stabilizes After Weekend Selloff; Resistance Around $59K
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