$165M Crypto Liquidation Hits Bitcoin Traders in Brutal Easter Sell-Off

Bitcoin (BTC) traders faced a brutal Easter shock as a sharp price drop triggered a wave of liquidations, highlighting the risks of overleveraged positions. Within just four hours, BTC tumbled to lows near $83,800 before slightly recovering to around $84,453, wiping out $9.62 million in long positions—compared to just $71,000 in shorts. This created a staggering 13,520% long-to-short liquidation imbalance, according to CoinGlass data.

The sudden dip caused total market liquidations to reach $35.35 million during the same window, with 83.6% of the losses hitting long traders. Bitcoin led the fallout, contributing $9.7 million to the total, followed by Ethereum (ETH) with $8.2 million and Solana (SOL) at $2.45 million. Over the past 24 hours, liquidations surged to $165.1 million, impacting over 119,000 traders.

The single largest liquidation order was a $5.95 million BTC/USDC position on Binance. This steep yet short-lived sell-off suggests overselling in the short term, but the damage to bullish positions was already done. Many market participants entered the holiday weekend expecting continued gains, only to be caught off guard by the swift reversal.

This event serves as a reminder of crypto’s inherent volatility and the dangers of excessive leverage. When sentiment becomes too one-sided, even a modest move against the trend can spark massive liquidations. With such an extreme imbalance, the market’s vulnerability becomes clear—especially during low-volume holiday sessions.

As traders recalibrate, all eyes are on BTC’s next move, with risk management becoming more crucial than ever.