U.S. Spot Flow Turns the Screw: $1.16B in Crypto Liquidations as Bitcoin Sheds 4%

Crypto started November under pressure. While the Nasdaq and S&P 500 traded green, digital assets bled: roughly $1.16 billion in positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. The pain hit crowded longs—about $1.08 billion of the total—underscoring how leverage often amplifies a modest spot drift into a broad, mechanical selloff.

Bitcoin fell 4% to $105,699, its lowest print since October 17, per CoinGecko. Ethereum dropped about 7% to $3,583—nearly a three‑month low. XRP slid about 7% to $2.33, and BNB, Solana, and Dogecoin all showed daily losses near 9%. Liquidations concentrated in the majors, with approximately $298 million in BTC and $273 million in ETH contracts forced closed.

The piece of market structure that matters here: the Coinbase premium. Over many cycles, that spread—Coinbase spot versus the broader exchange composite—has quietly served as a proxy for U.S. demand. Over the weekend, desks tend to go quiet and the premium often compresses. By Monday morning, it flipped negative and widened into the cash open, signaling persistent sell pressure from U.S. spot participants. When that premium leans negative, derivatives traders who spent the weekend leaning long can find themselves mispositioned into thinner liquidity, and the unwind tends to cascade.

This is less about a single catalyst and more about flow and positioning. Ethereum illustrates the fragility. As analyst Maartunn (CryptoQuant) noted, the $3,700 area has now been tagged five times. In strong uptrends, buyers frequently front‑run support; repeated, clean retests suggest dip‑buying stamina is fading. When spot fails to bounce decisively, stops accumulate under the level, and one push can turn a retest into a sweep and then a liquidation wave.

Psychology layered onto leverage did the rest. After a soft October that didn’t deliver the seasonal “Uptober” bid some traders expected, risk appetites already looked tentative. Late Sunday, comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about high rates potentially pushing parts of the economy into recession added to the jitters, and with a jobs report looming, few wanted to stick their necks out. That backdrop doesn’t have to spark the move; it just discourages dip‑buyers from stepping in front of it.

What to watch next: - The Coinbase premium as a real‑time gauge of U.S. spot appetite. If it stays negative, rallies may struggle. - ETH’s $3,700 band. A firm reclaim would neutralize the “multiple retests” stress; another clean failure invites more forced selling. - Open interest and funding. The more they rebuild without spot confirmation, the higher the probability of another flush. - Macro prints. A strong or weak jobs print can tilt the rate narrative, which still colors crypto’s risk premia even when equities diverge.

Traders often talk catalysts; today looked more like structure. Weekend liquidity gaps, U.S. spot flow flipping the Coinbase basis, and crowded longs created a setup where a modest nudge became a $1.16 billion reset. If you manage risk around crypto, that premium—and when it turns—may be the most useful line on your screen.