Bitcoin briefly slides below $84,000 as crypto long liquidations reach $487 million

Bitcoin (BTC) briefly dropped below $84,000, trading as low as around $83,800 late Tuesday, as crypto long liquidations surged.

The world's largest cryptocurrency fell 1.7% over the past 24 hours to trade at $84,071 as of 11:20 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to The Block's bitcoin price page. Ethereum (ETH) fell 3.3% to $2,612.

Notably, crypto liquidations amounted to $555.6 million over the past 24 hours, including $487.2 million in long positions, according to CoinGlass data. Within the past four hours, about $429.8 million was liquidated, including roughly $415.3 million in longs.

Liquidations occur when a trader's positions in a particular market are forcibly closed due to significant losses or insufficient margin to meet the maintenance requirements. The liquidation figures are typically based on publicly available data, which may significantly understate the true extent of market liquidations. 

"Bitcoin's pullback appears primarily driven by profit-taking and forced long liquidations, following a build-up in open interest and funding rates that left the market vulnerable to deleveraging," said Dominick John, analyst of Zeus Research.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 62, indicating "greed," down from 67 a day earlier. John said the softer sentiment, coupled with modest altcoin underperformance, added to the downside pressure.

"Let's not forget that BTC actually closed Q3 up roughly 40%, alongside $6.5 billion of spot ETF inflows," said Jeff Ko, chief analyst of ViaBTC. "If the $82,000-$83,000 area continues to hold, I would still view the current price action as a pretty constructive consolidation following the September breakout."