In early trading on Friday, the price of Bitcoin fell below $68,000 after setting a new record high exceeding $73,000 the previous day. The rapid changes in price caused a significant rise in the liquidation of leveraged Bitcoin positions. The value of the primary cryptocurrency by market capitalization went down by more than 8% within the last 24 hours, trading at $67,016 by 5:40 a.m. Eastern Time.

The recent price adjustment led to a considerable number of long positions being liquidated on centralized exchanges due to increased volatility. As a result of this uncertainty, more than $278 million in leveraged Bitcoin positions were liquidated. Meanwhile, the second-largest digital currency, ether (ETH), saw an 8% decline during the same period, now sitting at $3,662 by 5:40 a.m. Eastern Time. In contrast, SOL, the cryptocurrency native to the Solana network, managed to buck the trend with a modest 0.5% increase within the same timeframe, as per data from The Block's Prices Page.

Across the entire cryptocurrency market, there was a total of over $667 million in liquidated long positions within the last 24 hours. This led to a collective tally of $809 million in liquidations across different centralized exchanges, according to available data. Liquidations happen when a trader's position is closed involuntarily because they lack the necessary funds to cover their losses. This scenario unfolds when market movements work against the trader's position, depleting their initial margin or collateral.