Bitcoin Falls Below $80,000 as Liquidations Intensify Weekend Selloff

Bitcoin fell to approximately $79,146 on Saturday, breaking below $80,000 as a wave of liquidations intensified selling across cryptocurrency markets, according to Bitcoin.com News. The decline took the cryptocurrency to its lowest price in more than a month and renewed scrutiny of whether buyers could stabilize the market.

The report described a volatile session rather than an uninterrupted slide, with bitcoin subsequently trading on both sides of $80,000. That movement left the round-number threshold at the center of the immediate market narrative, without establishing that a sustained recovery had begun.

Liquidations were a central feature of the selloff. Bitcoin.com News, citing Coinglass figures, reported more than $810 million in cryptocurrency liquidations over 24 hours, including approximately $689 million in bullish positions; those figures covered the broader crypto market, not bitcoin alone.

Leverage can turn an initial price decline into additional selling pressure. When traders cannot meet the collateral requirements on borrowed positions, exchanges can close those positions automatically, making the resulting sales a consequence of falling prices as well as a potential contributor to further declines.

The distinction matters when interpreting a liquidation-heavy session. Forced position closures are not equivalent to every affected trader making a fresh judgment about bitcoin's longer-term prospects, although their immediate effect can still be painful for holders exposed to the falling market.

Longtime bitcoin critic and gold advocate Peter Schiff used the move to argue that $75,000 could be the next downside target, the report said. His forecast represents a bearish opinion rather than an established outcome, and the breach of $80,000 alone does not determine where prices will settle.

Schiff also highlighted the position of investors holding U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds during the weekend. Bitcoin trades continuously, while those fund shares generally do not trade on stock exchanges over the weekend, creating a gap between movements in the underlying asset and shareholders' ability to respond through regular exchange trading.

For investors, that difference separates exposure from access. Holding a fund linked to bitcoin does not eliminate movements in the underlying market when the exchange is closed, and a weekend decline can leave shareholders waiting for their next opportunity to adjust positions.

The episode also illustrates why a closely watched price threshold should not be treated as a guarantee of support. A move through such a level can draw attention and coincide with forced selling, but it cannot by itself establish either the depth of a downturn or the durability of a rebound.

Attention now turns to whether bitcoin can hold above $80,000 after its initial recovery attempts and how ETF investors respond when exchange trading resumes. Bitcoin.com News framed that return to trading as the next checkpoint, while Schiff's lower target remains a prediction to be tested rather than a settled destination.