BTC $60K break could trigger cascading liquidations,…

Bitcoin's slide toward $60,000 has put the market at a critical structural crossroads, with Deribit's chief commercial officer Jean-David Péquignot warning the level is far more than a psychological round number — it's a structural threshold with real consequences for institutions and derivatives participants.

Why it matters

A significant chunk of institutional capital — ETF buyers, large holders, and short-term speculators — accumulated BTC between $60,000 and $67,000 over the past year. With Bitcoin now trading within that range, these buyers are sitting at or near break-even. Péquignot warns that as prices undercut their cost basis, mounting unrealized losses could incentivize rushed selling, especially as the opportunity cost of holding BTC rises against a surging AI equity sector. Strategy's Michael Saylor has separately attributed recent BTC losses to exactly this kind of capital rotation.

Market impact

The derivatives picture amplifies the risk mechanically. Deribit currently holds over $1.2 billion in notional open interest at the $60,000 strike put options. Market makers sitting on the short side of those puts are "short gamma" — meaning as BTC approaches $60K, they are forced to sell spot BTC or futures to hedge their books, potentially turning an orderly decline into a chaotic one. Péquignot also flags that leverage has not been fully flushed from the system: a decisive break below $60K could rapidly worsen collateral metrics and trigger a cascading wave of automated long liquidations, compounding the downside momentum already building from broad risk-off flows across equities and crypto.