Bitcoin’s price took an unexpected turn for the worse minutes ago as it dumped from over $121,000 to under $118,000.

The altcoins have it even worse, with more painful declines that have harmed over-leveraged traders, as the total value of wrecked positions surges toward $1 billion.

BTCUSD. Source: TradingView

It has been quite the day for the primary cryptocurrency. Recall that just hours ago, the asset flew to a new all-time high, surpassing $124,500 for the first time ever.

However, it dropped by a few grand later during the day and calmed at around $121,000. In the past 10-15 minutes, though, the bears suddenly took complete control of the market, pushing bitcoin below $118,000 in a violent red candle.

BTC ($106,530.00) bounced off almost immediately and now sits a grand and a half higher, but it’s still $5,000 away from the new peak charted earlier today.

The altcoins have followed suit with painful declines from the likes of ETH ($3,847.07), XRP ($2.32), SOL ($183.49), DOGE ($0.19), and ADA ($0.63) – all of which have dropped by 2-3% in the past hour alone.

The most notable news that came out in the past few hours is somewhat bullish, so that’s probably not the reason behind the crash. After all, Putin said the US is actively pursuing peace between Russia and Ukraine and even hinted at a possible nuclear deal.

Nevertheless, the liquidations have skyrocketed to over $930 million on a daily basis. Moreover, they are close to $460 million in the past hours alone. CoinGlass data shows that 207,000 traders have been wrecked in the past day.

Liquidation Heat Map. Source: CoinGlass

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