Experts name the key reason for the fall of the cryptocurrency market

Today, on September 22, the cryptocurrency market suffered a sharp collapse: the price of Bitcoin BTC $113,086.00 Mezo Wrapped BTC -2.70% Market capitalization $40.62 million VOL. 24 hours $1.69 billion fell to $ 114,000, and the total market capitalization dropped to $ 3.96 trillion. The largest altcoins — Ethereum SOL $221.07 Binance-Peg SOL -7.23% Market capitalization $0.24 billion VOL. 24 hours $0.98 billion , XRP XRP $2.81 XRP -5.69% Market capitalization $167.94 billion VOL. 24 hours $0.47 billion , Solana SOL $221.07 Binance-Peg SOL -7.23% Market capitalization $0.24 billion VOL. 24 hours $0.98 billion and Cardano ADA $0.82 Cardano -7.48% Market capitalization $29.86 billion VOL. 24 hours $0.19 billion - showed daily losses of 4% to 12%, while BNB remained the only major token in the black. The CoinMarketCap Fear and Greed Index dropped to 47 (neutral), reflecting investor caution.

The main reason for the drop was a massive liquidation of long positions. Over the past 24 hours, 407,023 traders liquidated $ 1.7 billion worth of positions, of which more than $ 1.61 billion were longs. The largest liquidation order was recorded on OKX in the BTC-USDT pair and amounted to $ 12.74 million. This wave of forced sales has caused a domino effect, increasing market volatility.

Liquidations occur when leveraged traders cannot meet margin requirements and exchanges automatically close their trades. If longs dominate, the market is overloaded with supply, which puts additional pressure on prices and provokes panic among retail investors.

The seasonal weakness of the crypto market is another negative factor. According to Bitcoin Suisse and Bitget, August and September are historically considered the weakest months: the average drops are 0.54% in August and 4.16% in September. Since 2013, eight out of twelve September months have ended in the red, which increases investor skepticism during this period.

Analysts warn that if Bitcoin fails to maintain support in the range of $ 112,000-$ 114,000, the next critical point will be $ 110,000. For Ethereum, the key area remains the $ 4,200 level. In the event of a strong opening of the US markets, a short-term rebound is possible, but overall volatility will remain high, especially given the weak seasonality and a fresh wave of liquidations.