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Key Takeaways
- Nearly $1.84 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours, the largest event since February 5, with Bitcoin longs alone accounting for $883.66 million of the $1.66 billion long wipeout.
- Binance processed 41% of total liquidations at $748 million, followed by Hyperliquid at $314 million and Bybit at $247 million, with long positions making up 89–94% of liquidations across all three platforms.
- Despite the liquidation cascade, Bitcoin open interest rose from 759,000 BTC to 788,600 BTC, signaling new short positions entering the market, while whale accounts on OKX flipped to an extremely bearish ratio of 0.54.
Nearly $1.84 billion in leveraged crypto positions were wiped out in a single 24-hour period on Wednesday, the largest liquidation event since February 5, as Bitcoin plunged below $66,000 and Ether broke under $1,900, according to CoinGlass data. Long positions bore the overwhelming majority of the damage, accounting for $1.66 billion of the total, while short positions absorbed just $180 million in losses in what amounted to a near-complete flush of bullish bets across the market.
Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana Longs Absorbed the Bulk of the $1.66 Billion Long Wipeout
A liquidation occurs when an exchange automatically closes a leveraged trade because a trader’s losses have exceeded the collateral posted to open the position. Long positions are bets that prices will rise, while short positions are bets that prices will fall.
In Wednesday’s cascade, Bitcoin longs accounted for the largest single share at $883.66 million, followed by Ether longs at $475.73 million and Solana longs at $91.18 million, per CoinGlass data. The remaining approximately $390 million in long liquidations was distributed across positions in HYPE, DOGE, SUI, BNB, NEAR, AAVE, LINK, and other assets, per CoinGlass data.
The single largest individual order liquidated during the period was a $59.67 million BTC-USDT long position unwound on HTX. Bitcoin had traded as high as approximately $71,000 earlier in the week before falling to approximately $65,700 during the period covered, according to CoinGlass data.
Binance Processed 41% of Total Liquidations, With Hyperliquid and Bybit Close Behind
The liquidations were heavily concentrated across three exchanges. Binance accounted for $748 million of the total, representing roughly 41% of the entire cascade, with 89% of those positions being long. Hyperliquid processed $314 million in liquidations, of which 94% were long positions, and Bybit logged $247 million with 93% of its liquidated positions on the long side.
Across all three platforms, long positions accounted for between 89% and 94% of total liquidations, per CoinGlass data. Aggregate taker volume across the full period showed $65.39 billion in sells against $60.16 billion in buys, with sellers acting as the marginal force throughout, per CoinGlass data.
Bitcoin Open Interest Rose From 759,000 BTC to 788,600 BTC Even as Longs Were Closed
Despite the scale of the long liquidations, Bitcoin open interest, defined as the total value of all unsettled leveraged futures contracts, increased rather than declined during the cascade. The contract count climbed from approximately 759,000 BTC to 788,600 BTC even as the long book was being wiped out, according to CoinGlass data.
Rising open interest during a price decline is typically read as new short positions entering the market, rather than existing longs being closed.
Retail Traders Remain Long Across Binance, OKX, and Bybit While Whale Accounts on OKX Flip Bearish
The positioning data following the liquidation event showed a significant divergence between retail and institutional-scale traders. Retail Bitcoin traders on Binance, OKX, and Bybit maintained long-leaning ratios of 2.22, 2.01, and 1.58 respectively, indicating that smaller traders had not capitulated following the wipeout. Whale accounts on OKX, by contrast, shifted to a long-short ratio of 0.54, a level that CoinGlass flagged as “extremely bearish.”
