Bitcoin dips below $40,000 during broader Asia market sell-off

For the second time this month, bitcoin has dipped below $40,000, hitting $38,642 mid-way through the Asia trading session.

For the second time this month, bitcoin has dipped below $40,000, hitting $38,642 mid-way through the Asia trading session.

Other layer-1s such as Solana and Cardano have also been dragged down, posting declines of 9% and 10% respectively.

According to Coinclass, there have been nearly $600 million in liquidations during the last 12 hours. Bitcoin led the liquidation pack at $250 million, followed by ether at $163 million and SOL at $10.9 million.

Binance led the exchange pack in liquidations at $173 million, with 91% being long positions. Asia-focused exchange Okex was next at $170 million, with the majority being longs.

The largest single liquidation order happened on Bitmex in the USDT-bitcoin perpetual swap and was valued at $9.91 million.

In its daily research note note, Delphi Digital wrote that investors are pricing in numerous rate hikes which is significantly impacting risk assets.

"Talk of the town this week is the latest jump in bond yields, most notably U.S. Treasuries, as investors continue to position for an accelerated tightening timeline. The market is now pricing in at least 4 rate hikes this year, with the probability of a 5th ticking up this week. While a lot of headlines have focused on nominal yields, it's the recent spike in real yields that matters more in our opinion, especially for non-income-producing assets like bitcoin and gold," they wrote.

This move appears to have caught the market by surprise, as options chain data suggests that there is a significant amount of open interest stuck at $45,000-$46,000 for bitcoin and $3200-$3300 for ether, according to Laevitas.