$309M in long positions liquidated from crypto market in 24 hours as leverage unwinds

Roughly $309 million in long crypto positions were forcibly closed over the past 24 hours. The liquidation wave hit hardest on exchanges like Binance, OKX, Bybit, and Hyperliquid, and overwhelmingly punished traders betting on higher prices. Long positions accounted for the vast majority of the damage, a ratio consistent with the 70-80% skew that typically accompanies downside moves in crypto markets. Where the pain landed Bitcoin and Ethereum absorbed the largest share of liquidations. Daily liquidation totals for BTC and ETH individually tend to range between $40 million and $80 million during periods of stress, and this event was no exception. Smaller contributions came from altcoins including Solana, XRP, and DOGE. CoinBoss tracked approximately $306 million in long liquidations, while ByKaranteli’s figures came in around $234 million out of a roughly $303 million total. How liquidations actually work When a trader opens a leveraged long on a perpetual futures contract, they post collateral called margin. If the price drops enough that their collateral no longer meets the exchange’s maintenance margin threshold, the exchange force-closes the position to prevent further losses. ...