Market sees $351 million in liquidations as ETH takes most losses

The crypto derivatives market saw $351.86 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, with Ethereum accounting for $108.88 million and Bitcoin $56.01 million.

These liquidations followed a big intraday swing for Bitcoin and a relatively modest price move for Ethereum. BTC traded between $111,971 and $116,235 on Binance, closing at $114,291, while ETH ranged from $3,357 to $3,735 before settling at $3,645.91.

Despite smaller relative price changes, ETH’s liquidation volume outpaced BTC nearly 2-to-1, showing that its market was much more heavily leveraged or misaligned with short-term sentiment.

ETH saw $43.08 million in short liquidations, more than triple Bitcoin’s $14.35 million, suggesting many traders expected continued downside that failed to materialize. A lack of ETF activity and internal network developments seems to have increased speculation around ETH, which in turn triggered erratic leverage positioning.

Binance and Bybit saw the highest liquidations: $138.18 million and $102.87 million, respectively. This centralization in liquidation activity illustrates the leverage density of these platforms. Gate contributed another $42.18 million, with smaller numbers from OKX and HTX. Hyperliquid, while significantly less dominant in total volume, registered the largest single liquidation order at $5.17 million on a BTC-USD pair.

The total liquidation skew was heavily long-biased, with $238.97 million in long positions wiped out, compared to $112.88 million in shorts. This tells us traders positioned for a bullish breakout but were gradually forced out by range-bound or fading rallies. BTC’s relatively steady close, just slightly below the daily high, shielded it from more extreme liquidations, while ETH’s volatility drew aggressive positioning on both ends.

Despite a sharper -2.25% price drop to $164.44, Solana saw limited liquidations at $16.97 million. This could point to a lower leverage ratio or less directional conviction among traders. Interestingly, the data reflects that SOL shorts slightly outweighed longs over the day, contrasting the more bullish tilt seen in ETH and BTC positioning.