The cryptocurrency market experienced a significant downturn on Tuesday, with most leading digital assets by market value suffering sharp declines. This widespread drop led to over $320 million in liquidations within the past 24 hours, predominantly affecting long positions.

### Ethereum Leads Massive Liquidations

Data from CoinGlass highlighted that Ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, spearheaded the liquidation wave, accounting for more than $102 million. Following closely, Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s most valuable digital asset by market cap, saw over $96 million liquidated. Solana (SOL) traders faced liquidations exceeding $12 million overnight, while XRP users experienced liquidations surpassing the $3 million mark. Additionally, traders of The Open Network (TON) liquidated over $2 million, still reeling from the news of Telegram CEO and TON co-founder Pavel Durov’s arrest in France.

### Predominance of Long Position Liquidations

The key takeaway from Tuesday’s market turmoil is that the vast majority of liquidations were long positions. CoinGlass reported that 88.82% of the liquidations fell into this category. In total, 87,760 traders were liquidated, with the largest single order reaching $12.67 million on the major exchange Binance. Overall, the crypto market saw a staggering loss of $321.68 million in just one day.

### Bitcoin’s Price Decline

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $63,400 on Tuesday before entering a downward spiral, eventually dropping below the $60,000 mark. At its lowest point on Tuesday night, Bitcoin traded at approximately $58,000, according to data from CoinGecko. By early Wednesday, BTC had rebounded slightly to around $59,300, still over 19% lower than its all-time high of $73,737.94 recorded in mid-March.

### Other Cryptocurrencies Follow Suit

In a trend mirroring Bitcoin’s decline, other top cryptocurrencies also saw significant losses. Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest crypto asset by market cap, fell by 7.8% in the last 24 hours. Binance Coin (BNB) dropped nearly 3%, Solana (SOL) decreased by 6.7%, and XRP declined by 3.7% overnight. Additional top-10 cryptocurrencies also faced losses: Lido Staked Ether (STETH) decreased by 7.9%, Dogecoin (DOGE) fell by 6.4%, and TRON (TRX) dipped by 2.5%.

### Factors Contributing to the Market Downturn

Several factors contributed to this recent crypto market downturn. Earlier this month, a broader financial market downturn impacted the volatile crypto market, causing Bitcoin to shed $6,000 in a single day. This time around, cautious sentiment among AI token traders awaiting Nvidia’s earnings report played a significant role. As Nvidia leads advancements in artificial intelligence, its quarterly results are expected to influence the AI crypto token subsector, particularly amid concerns over potential delays in the release of its next-gen Blackwell AI chips.

Additionally, movements by crypto whales—large holders of digital assets—have influenced market prices. Overnight, several Bitcoin and Ether whales transferred substantial amounts to exchanges and other digital wallets. One whale moved 12,573 ETH valued at over $32.5 million to Coinbase, while another transferred 7,288 Bitcoins worth over $451 million to another wallet on Tuesday.

Overall, the crypto market’s recent volatility underscores the impact of broader economic factors and significant movements within the industry itself.