CoinDesk
Nearly $1.84 billion in leveraged crypto positions were wiped out in 24 hours as bitcoin plunged 6.4% to $65,708 and ether broke below $1,900 — the largest liquidation event since February 5. The single biggest unwind was a $59.67 million BTC-USDT long on HTX, with Binance alone accounting for $748 million, or roughly 41% of the total cascade.
Why it matters
Long positions bore the brunt: BTC longs absorbed $883.66 million, ETH longs another $475.73 million, and SOL longs $91.18 million, with the remaining ~$390 million spread across DOGE, HYPE, SUI, BNB, NEAR, AAVE, LINK and the broader top-30 book. The timing is brutal — crypto sold off sharply just as the MSCI All Country World Index hit a fresh all-time high on the AI rally, leaving traders who expected crypto to catch the global equity bid nursing heavy losses. The sell-off was compounded by MicroStrategy's first disclosed bitcoin sale and spot BTC ETF outflows exceeding $3.2 billion.
Market impact
The positioning data is the most alarming signal. Bitcoin open interest actually rose during the cascade — climbing from ~759,000 BTC to 788,600 BTC even as the long book was being wiped — suggesting fresh short positions are being layered on top of the flush rather than the market finding a clearing level. Retail traders on Binance, OKX and Bybit remain stubbornly long at ratios of 2.22, 2.01 and 1.58 respectively, while whale accounts on OKX have flipped to a 0.54 long-short ratio that CoinGlass flags as "extremely bearish." Aggregate taker volume showed $65.39 billion in sells against $60.16 billion in buys. A break below $65,000 opens a path toward $60,000; the positioning data argues against a relief bounce being the more likely outcome.
Lookonchain
CoinTelegraph