Bitcoin fell below the $87,000 level shortly after Wall Street opened on Monday, as fresh selling pressure set off a wave of liquidations across bullish positions.
The move picked up speed around the opening bell.
Several traders pointed to activity on Binance and the trading firm Wintermute as key sources of new supply entering the market simultaneously.
Liquidations of long positions built quickly. One of the crypto trackers reported 100 million liquidations of long positions in five minutes.
In just over an hour, losses had already surpassed $200 million, based on data from CoinGlass.