Short Positions Account for 59% of $229.9 Million in Crypto Liquidations

Short positions bore most of the $229.9 million in crypto liquidations over 24 hours, with Ether and Bitcoin leading the forced closures across Binance, OKX and Bybit.

The tally covered 42,424 orders through 8:05 p.m. ET on Oct. 20 (00:05 UTC on Oct. 21). Shorts accounted for $134.8 million, or 59%, while longs accounted for $95.1 million.

Ether (ETH) had $73.6 million in liquidations, the highest total among the listed assets. Bitcoin (BTC) followed at $68.6 million. Short positions made up $43.6 million of the Ether figure and $43.9 million of the Bitcoin figure.

Zcash (ZEC) recorded $15.0 million in liquidations, and Solana (SOL) recorded $12.9 million. Shorts made up most of both totals. Long liquidations exceeded short liquidations for NEAR and XRP, which had totals of $4.3 million and $3.6 million, respectively.

Binance accounted for $162.6 million of the exchange total. OKX recorded $51.4 million, and Bybit recorded $15.9 million. The largest single liquidation was a $12.0 million BTC short on Binance at 10:15 a.m. ET (14:15 UTC) on Oct. 20.

A liquidation occurs when an exchange closes a leveraged position because the trader’s margin can no longer support it.