The cryptocurrency market faced a tumultuous decline as the U.S. business day drew to a close, with Bitcoin (BTC) plunging beneath the $59,000 mark and Ethereum’s Ether (ETH) suffering a nearly 10% drop.

Bitcoin, which had earlier peaked at $62,700, saw its value nosedive, erasing 6.5% within 24 hours. The flagship cryptocurrency plummeted to a low of $58,240, a nadir not witnessed since August 19. Ether, similarly, traded at a high of $2,700 earlier in the day but sharply fell below $2,500 in the wake of the sell-off.

The precise catalyst for this abrupt market downturn remains elusive. However, the sharp decline precipitated a massive $313 million in liquidations of leveraged crypto derivatives positions over the past 24 hours, marking the most significant wipeout since the August 5th crash, according to CoinGlass data. Traders holding ETH positions bore the brunt with over $100 million in liquidations, while BTC traders faced $95 million in losses.

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Other leading cryptocurrencies by market capitalization also mirrored this decline. Binance Coin (BNB) dropped nearly 4% to $528, Solana (SOL) fell by 7% to $146, and XRP declined by 4% to $0.56. Meanwhile, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Tron (TRX) experienced declines of 6.5% and 2.25% respectively, trading at $0.098 and $0.158.

In a striking contrast, the Telegram-affiliated TON token managed to buck the trend, climbing nearly 5% over the past 24 hours. This surge followed a sharp drop triggered by the news that Telegram founder Pavel Durov had been arrested in France on a variety of charges.