Crypto Traders Face $1.68 Billion in Liquidations, Majority from Long Positions
Overcrowded leveraged longs triggered a $1.68 billion wipeout across major exchanges, with Bitcoin and Ether leading losses as 267,000 traders were forced out in cascading sell-offs.
Cryptocurrency markets saw $1.68 billion in leveraged positions liquidated within 24 hours, affecting around 267,370 traders. Long positions accounted for nearly 93% of the losses, totaling $1.56 billion, with $780 million in Bitcoin and $414 million in Ether liquidations, according to Coinglass data. The largest single liquidation was an $80.57 million BTC-USDT position on HTX. Exchanges with heavy perpetuals activity, such as Hyperliquid ($598 million), Bybit ($339 million), and Binance ($181 million), saw concentrated long exposure losses. Analysts attributed the sell-off to unwinding of overcrowded leverage rather than fresh bearish sentiment, creating cascading forced sales that flushed speculative excess from the market.
- Liquidation: The forced closure of a trader’s leveraged position when margin requirements are not met.
- Long Position: A trading strategy where investors bet on the rise of an asset’s price, profiting if the price increases.
- Perpetuals: A type of futures contract in cryptocurrency markets with no expiry date, allowing continuous leverage trading.