Over 173,000 crypto traders liquidated in 24 hours as $2.98B evaporates

Nearly $3 billion in leveraged crypto positions vanished in a single day, catching more than 173,000 traders on the wrong side of the market. The overwhelming majority of that pain landed on short sellers, suggesting a violent upward move that punished anyone betting against the rally. CoinGlass data shows approximately 173,214 traders were liquidated over a 24-hour window, with total losses hitting roughly $2.98 billion. Of that figure, a staggering $2.74 billion came from short positions, while longs accounted for a comparatively modest $242 million. The numbers behind the wipeout Shorts made up roughly 92% of all liquidated value, meaning bearish traders were overwhelmingly the ones getting margin-called. The single largest casualty was a $48.80 million BTC-USD position on Hyperliquid, the decentralized perpetual futures exchange. Among centralized exchanges, Binance led the pack in a recent 4-hour snapshot with $16.44 million in liquidations. OKX followed at $6.17 million, with Gate.io rounding out the top three at $3.90 million. These figures represent just a narrow window, meaning the actual exchange-level totals over the full 24-hour period were substantially larger. For con...