Bitcoin briefly plunged below $62,000 Thursday morning Hong Kong time, triggering more than $1.5 billion in leveraged crypto liquidations over the past 24 hours as a wave of forced selling accelerated the market’s steepest decline in months.

More than 208,000 traders were liquidated across crypto markets, according to CoinGlass data, with bitcoin accounting for over $800 million of the losses and ether another $386 million.

The liquidation wave coincided with continued weakness in institutional demand. Investors have pulled approximately $1 billion from U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs this week, according to SoSoValue data, extending the funds’ record streak of net outflows.

Presto Research argued Thursday in a note that bitcoin’s weakness may…