Crypto shorts lose $110 million in a 10-minute liquidation burst

Ten minutes. That is reportedly how long it took for $110 million in short positions to be wiped out across crypto derivatives markets. What happened during the squeeze The $110 million figure covers short positions that were forcibly closed within a single 10-minute window. Research compiled on the event places it on October 2, 2026. Liquidation trackers, including ByKaranteli, showed heavy short liquidations lining up with a burst of market volatility. In the 24 hours before the spike, total liquidations ranged from $100 million to $170 million, and shorts often made up more than $70 million of that. One standout was a $2.1 million ETH short liquidated on Binance. Several multimillion-dollar liquidations in BTC and ETH also hit centralized exchanges. Recent liquidation events have caught more than 56,000 traders across more than 11 venues. How a short squeeze feeds itself When the price moves against a leveraged short seller, the exchange closes the trade automatically before losses eat through the collateral. For a short seller, closing the trade means buying the asset back, and all that forced buying pushes prices higher. Higher prices then knock out the next layer of shorts, w...