$300 Million Liquidated as Bitcoin-Led Rebound Triggers Short Squeeze

Roughly $300 million in leveraged cryptocurrency positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, underscoring how quickly a modest price rebound can force overextended traders out of the market. The washout was driven primarily by short-covering as major assets ticked higher, according to data compiled by CoinGlass.

Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for the largest share of liquidations, with about $139.61 million wiped out in a day, followed by Ethereum (ETH) at $114.44 million and Solana (SOL) at $24.2 million. The concentration in BTC and ETH highlights how leverage remains heaviest in the most liquid majors—even when the broader market is moving in a relatively narrow range.

In the most recent four-hour window, Bybit saw the highest liquidation volume at approximately $6.57 million, representing 25.1% of the total among tracked venues. Notably, about $5.58 million of that—84.89%—came from short positions, pointing to a market that had leaned bearish into the bounce. Binance followed with $5.40 million in liquidations (20.62%), with shorts making up 63.66% ($3.44 million). Bitget recorded about $5.37 million (20.52%) and showed an even sharper skew, with shorts representing 93.82% of liquidations.

OKX stood out as an outlier: while it booked about $2.73 million (10.43%) in liquidations, long positions comprised 62.32% of the total there, suggesting exchange-specific positioning differences or user-base divergence. Hyperliquid and BitMEX posted some of the most extreme readings, with short liquidations accounting for 98.85% and 100% of their totals, respectively—an indication that bearish leverage was particularly vulnerable on those venues during the upswing.

Market price action aligned with the liquidation profile. Bitcoin rose 1.52% to $67,482, helping trigger a wave of forced short closures; BTC liquidations peaked at about $5.28 million during a four-hour stretch. Ethereum also posted heavy two-sided deleveraging over the day, but the overall pattern broadly reflected a 'short squeeze' dynamic rather than panic long unwinds.

Among large-cap altcoins, Solana climbed 2.22% and saw a concentrated burst of short liquidations, with roughly $4.69 million liquidated over a 12-hour period. XRP (XRP) recorded about $4.81 million in liquidations, while Cardano (ADA) saw roughly $1.87 million. Dogecoin (DOGE) rose 2.33% yet showed mixed positioning stress: about $2.79 million in long liquidations versus roughly $0.76 million in short liquidations over 24 hours, implying some traders were late to the move or over-leveraged on the upside.

Not all tokens participated in the rebound. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fell 5.52%, the steepest decline among the major altcoins cited, producing about $2.72 million in long liquidations as bullish leverage was forced out. HYPE also slipped 3.46% and nonetheless saw around $1.22 million in short liquidations over 12 hours, reflecting choppy, two-way volatility rather than a clean directional trend.

In crypto derivatives, a 'liquidation' occurs when an exchange forcibly closes a leveraged position after a trader can no longer meet margin requirements—often amplifying price moves as forced orders hit the market. The latest data suggests the market had built up meaningful downside bets that became vulnerable as prices edged higher, while isolated drawdowns like BCH served as a reminder that leverage risk can shift quickly from shorts to longs depending on the asset.

Going forward, the dominance of short liquidations implies that positioning may be less crowded on the bearish side in the immediate term, but it also signals that volatility can re-accelerate if prices continue to grind higher and trigger additional forced buying. At the same time, the exchange-by-exchange differences—particularly OKX’s higher long-liquidation share—highlight how fragmented leverage and trader bias remain across venues, leaving the market susceptible to abrupt, localized cascades.