Crypto bulls took a heavy beating on Thursday with over $1.15 billion in liquidations wiping out leveraged positions across major exchanges, marking one of the bloodiest days for crypto markets in recent months.
The largest single liquidation was a bitcoin BTC long position on Binance, valued at $200 million, making it one of the biggest one-off losses in the year so far. It is unclear which trading firm or individual was behind that position, as exchanges don’t make that data public.
Data from Coinglass shows over 247,00 traders were liquidated in the 24-hour span. Long traders bore the brunt, accounting for over $1 billion in losses — reflecting overly optimistic positioning after a week of bullish sentiment fueled by Circle’s high-profile IPO and a resurgence in U.S.-focused DeFi narratives.
BTC lost more than 3% to trade at $104,700 in Asian afternoon hours, while ether ETH sunk 8% to $2,530. Tokens like solana’s SOL SOL and dogecoin DOGE also slid over 8%, while XRP XRP fell to $2.20.
Crypto exchanges Binance and Bybit accounted for more than $834 million in liquidated trades, the most among counterparts.
Liquidations occur when traders use borrowed funds to bet on asset prices and fail to maintain a sufficient margin to cover their positions. Exchanges then forcibly close positions to prevent further losses, a built-in risk feature that often results in chain reactions during volatile moves.