$646M Bloodbath: Bitcoin Liquidation Cascade Rocks Crypto Markets in 24-Hour Frenzy

Bitcoin just gave traders a brutal masterclass in volatility—wiping out nine figures in leveraged positions faster than a Wall Street banker can say 'risk management.'

The reckoning: A violent cascade of liquidations slammed crypto markets, vaporizing $646 million in positions as BTC price action turned predatory. Longs got steamrolled. Shorts got squeezed. And the perpetual swaps market looked like a gladiator arena with margin calls as the lions.

Silver lining? This is Bitcoin doing what Bitcoin does best—liquidating the overleveraged and redistributing wealth to the patient. The network doesn’t care about your 100x leverage dreams. Tick tock next block.

(Meanwhile, traditional finance bros are still trying to hedge inflation with commercial real estate—bless their hearts.)

Bitcoin and ethereum were hit almost equally, at $152 million apiece. Yet BTC’s own liquidation mix still leaned heavily to the long side, with $136.0 million in long wipeouts versus $16.1 million in shorts. Ethereum showed a slightly more balanced profile ($91.1 million longs against $61.5 million shorts), suggesting ETH bears were also caught fading previous strength.

Solana and XRP rounded out the top four, losing $39.2 million and $29.9 million in long exposure, respectively. Although their prices fell 2.5 % and ROSE 0.1 %, the absolute dollar value of wiped long leverage reveals that smaller‑cap majors still host meaningful directional bets.

Binance was at the center of this market-wide wipeout, logging $232.9 million in net liquidations, 75 % of which were longs. Bybit followed with $187.5 million and OKX with $108.1 million. The three venues accounted for roughly 80 % of total forced exits.

The heaviest pain came in a single four‑hour block where $201.8 million worth of positions were closed, $184.8 million of which were longs. A sharp, automated unwind of such size often exaggerates price moves in the moment, creating a cascade that feeds on itself until collateral buffers stabilise.

Despite the flush, Bitcoin seems to have stabilized at just above $115,000. This indicates that the spot market absorbed the BTC that hit the market once liquidations ran their course. Funding rates have also compressed toward neutral on major perpetual swaps, indicating that some of the overheated bullish leverage has reset.