Bitcoin and Ethereum Prices Plunge on Recession Fears as Liquidations Spike

The crypto market is bleeding red as of late Friday afternoon, with major assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum plunging by 5% or more following a rough U.S. jobs report that also spooked the stock market—and prompted fears of an impending recession.

The price of Bitcoin fell well under $62,000 on Friday, dipping as low as $61,308 per data from CoinGecko. It's back up to just above $62,000 as of this writing, but is still down about 5% on the day from a 24-hour peak of $65,505.

Meanwhile, Ethereum fell sharply, dipping down to $2,967 after being above the $3,200 mark less than a day ago. At a current price of just under $3,000, it's still down nearly 6% on the day. Other major assets have seen similar or even larger dips, such as Solana, which is down more than 7% at a price of $154.

Volatility across the crypto markets on Friday led to another spike in liquidations of long and short positions, or bets that the future price of a crypto asset will rise or fall, respectively. As of this writing, CoinGlass reports $269 million worth of positions liquidated over the past 24 hours across the market, led by $82 million worth of Bitcoin positions.

It's the second straight day of sizable crypto liquidations as the price of top assets continue to fall.

A weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs report released early Friday appeared to spook markets across the board, with the stock market showing red across the board and crypto prices eventually following suit. The report, which noted a jump in the unemployment rate as nonfarm jobs fell well short of expectations, prompted fears that a U.S. recession is taking hold.

However, while the panic has shown apparent short-term effects on crypto prices, some analysts believe that Bitcoin may ultimately benefit amid a weaker U.S. dollar and potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts that are expected.

“With the Fed weakening monetary policy, it will be supportive for fixed-supply assets such as Bitcoin and gold,” CoinShares Head of Research James Butterfill told Decrypt.