Bitcoin Falls Below $104K; $1.37B Liquidations

Cryptocurrency markets tumbled this week as Bitcoin fell below $104,000, sliding as low as $103,539, while major altcoins including Ether, XRP, BNB and Solana posted sharp losses amid a DeFi crisis and macro uncertainty. Roughly $1.37 billion in total liquidations were recorded, and Stream Finance halted deposits after reporting about $93 million in asset losses. The deeper drop exposed heavy leverage across major exchanges and eclipsed earlier concerns tied to specific liquidation thresholds. Debate over the threat from quantum computing has intensified: some researchers and the Human Rights Foundation warn millions of BTC could be vulnerable to future quantum attacks, while many cryptographers say the practical ability to break Bitcoin’s cryptography remains years away. Security experts caution about “harvest now, decrypt later” collection of encrypted data and slow migration to quantum-resistant solutions, noting NIST has published post‑quantum guidance and that panic or premature claims about quantum breakthroughs could trigger outsized market routs.