Arthur Hayes, Co-Founder of BitMEX, has revealed that Bitcoin is going to experience a more violent wave below the $80K mark. He added that BTC could push further below $80K over the weekend.
The virtual currency has dropped below $80,000 for the first time in over three months in the wake of mounting uncertainty over Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs. Liquidations across the broader crypto market surged past $730 million within the past 24 hours, with Bitcoin long positions accounting for nearly half of the total.
Bitcoin’s price falls below $80,000 for the first time since November
$182.7 million in longs just got obliterated in the last hour and a half, sending bitcoin below $80k.
It was probably a handful of very, very large players getting stopped out—at $82k and then $80k.
Longs are not having a fun week playing with leveraged bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/h3f41WfhSI
— Joe Consorti ⚡️ (@JoeConsorti) February 28, 2025
CoinMarketCap showed that Bitcoin plummeted to around $79,752 on February 27 for the first time since November. At the time of publication, CoinGlass data indicated that Bitcoin liquidated slightly over $99 million in long positions and roughly $5.62M in short positions. The crypto asset also recorded a total of $365 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, with over $322M liquidation of long orders.
The digital asset traded at this level on November 11, just days after Donald Trump was elected U.S. President. Bitcoin’s price exchanged hands at that level due to optimism that Trump’s pro-crypto policies would lead a Bitcoin rally in 2025.
Since the President’s inauguration on January 20, when the virtual currency hit an all-time-high of $109,000, BTC has plummeted nearly 26%. Arthur Hayes said he planned to add risk on Bitcoin this morning, but refrained because he sees the crypto asset having one more violent wave below $80,000.
“We are making lower lows in the current wave. I was tempted to add risk this morning, but looking at this price action I think we have one more violent wave down below $80k, most likely over the weekend, then crickets for a while. Hold on to your butts!” – Arthur Hayes, Co-Founder of BitMEX.
Ethereum, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, also plummeted to a low of $2,139 on February 28, which was a 24-hour drop of nearly 8%. The digital asset also recorded a 14-month low with a 33.87% decline from the past year. Ethereum also experienced a 24-hour liquidation of over $166 million, with $144.09 million of liquidated long positions and $22.26M liquidated short positions.
U.S stock markets plummet as Trump’s DOGE shake investor confidence
The U.S. stock markets also experienced losses on Thursday, with the S&P 500 dropping by 1.65, the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite plummeting dropping 2.8%. The U.S. tech stock also swooned yesterday, led by shares of Nvidia tumbling by 8.5%. Dow Jones Market Data showed that the company recorded the worst post earnings drop since November 16, 2018.
Bank of America strategist Micheal Hartnett shared his thoughts during an interview with Bloomberg TV about where the so-called Trump put stood. He acknowledged that the administration would likely act “if things go haywire.”
Hartnett believes that people would worry at around 5,600, 5,700 (on the S&P 500) “if there wasn’t some sort of attempt, whether through fiscal policy or pulling back on DOGE.” He was mainly referring to the cuts to federal programs and staffing initiated by the Elon Musk-led department (DOGE).
Hartnett’s notion that a “Trump put” could help resuscitate the markets should things turn volatile was a holdover from President Trump’s first term in the White House. Investors often spoke about the “Fed put” prior to that, which indicated that the central bank would intervene to stamp out the potentially destabilizing stock-market volatility before things began to snowball. Both notions do not imply that the central bank or the Fed was stepping in to purchase stocks themselves, but they are metaphors for any rhetoric or direct actions that could inspire investors to buy.
Jason Draho, head of asset allocation at UBS Global Wealth Management, acknowledged that Trump clearly followed the stock market and used it as a real-time gauge that markets were approving and endorsing his policies.
Trump presided over previous periods of stock-market volatility, such as when the S&P 500 fell by nearly 20% from its peak in 2018 amid Trump’s trade war with China and the Fed’s interest-rate hikes. Binky Chadha, chief strategist at Deutsche Bank, observed a shift in the administration’s tactics once the index plummeted by about 10% from its highs.
Chadha believes that it was still early to speculate since Trump’s administration was still in its early days. He also expects that the S&P 500 would need to fall by at least 10% from its current level to inspire Trump and his team to act.
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