Over 254,000 crypto traders liquidated in 24 hours as leverage wipeout tops $1B

A quarter of a million crypto traders just got a very expensive reminder that leverage cuts both ways.

Over 254,000 traders were liquidated across major crypto exchanges in a single 24-hour window, according to data aggregated by CoinGlass. The total damage: somewhere between $1.17 billion and $1.31 billion in wiped-out positions.

The overwhelming majority of those liquidations hit long positions. At one snapshot, longs accounted for $996 million in liquidations compared to just $309 million in shorts.

The numbers behind the carnage

CoinGlass, which pulls real-time liquidation data from exchanges including Binance and Bybit, reported a range of 246,000 to 267,000 liquidated positions during the period. The 254,161 figure sits comfortably in the middle of that window, suggesting it was captured at a specific point as numbers fluctuated hourly.

Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana were the primary culprits. Those three assets have consistently led liquidation events throughout 2026, which makes sense given they attract the heaviest concentration of leveraged trading activity through perpetual futures contracts.

Here’s the thing about perpetual futures: they let traders take positions worth multiples of their actual capital. When the market moves against them beyond their margin threshold, the exchange automatically closes their position and keeps the collateral.

2026 has been a liquidation machine

This wasn’t even close to the worst day of the year. Look at the pattern: on February 5, 2026, approximately 311,000 traders were liquidated. More recently, around 167,400 traders were wiped out on May 28, 2026.

Significant volatility days have regularly pushed liquidation counts past the 100,000 mark throughout the year, with several instances exceeding 500,000.

Perpetual futures markets in crypto operate with far higher maximum leverage ratios than traditional finance typically allows retail participants. Some exchanges offer up to 100x or even 125x leverage on certain pairs. At 100x leverage, a 1% adverse price move wipes out your entire position.

What this means for investors

The metric to watch going forward is open interest, the total value of outstanding derivative contracts on major exchanges. When open interest climbs rapidly relative to spot volume, it signals that leverage is building up in the system again.

Traders using leverage should be paying close attention to funding rates as well. When funding rates on perpetual futures skew heavily positive, it means longs are paying shorts to maintain their positions, which indicates overcrowded bullish positioning. That’s often a leading indicator that a liquidation event is brewing.

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