Crypto markets saw a sharp reset in leverage in the past 24 hours, with over $584 million in positions liquidated, as a highly skewed long positioning was forced out amid tight liquidity and fragile risk sentiment.
Bitcoin and major altcoins fell during US trading hours as macroeconomic uncertainty continued to pressure risk assets. Many cryptocurrency-related stocks, including leaders Coinbase and Strategy, posted deeper declines than the cryptocurrencies themselves.
AI-linked stocks such as Broadcom and Oracle continue to reel from last week’s weak earnings results, as CoinDesk reported on Monday.
The data shows that 181,893 traders were liquidated, with long positions accounting for more than 87% of total losses, a clear sign that the move was driven less by new bearish catalysts and more by the market’s inability to sustain crowded bullish bets.
Bitcoin and ether led the wipeout, recording $174.3 million and $189 million in liquidations respectively, according to liquidation heatmap data. The largest single liquidation order was an $11.58 million BTCUSDT position that occurred on Binance.
Binance, Bybit and Hyperliquid together accounted for almost three-quarters of the total liquidations, with Hyperliquid standing out for the severity of the imbalance: 98% of positions liquidated on the spot were long, underscoring how aggressively traders positioned themselves ahead of the move.
The sell-off event unfolded without a major catalyst, reinforcing a broader theme that has defined recent market action: low-conviction rallies based on leverage rather than spot demand are proving increasingly fragile.
Market participants say the structure of the sell-off is more like a classic liquidity sweep than a panic sale. Prices pushed far enough below key intraday support levels to trigger a cascade of stop-losses and forced liquidations, before stabilizing, a pattern typical of late-cycle or range-bound conditions.
“The market remains extremely sensitive to positioning,” said one derivatives trader. “When leverage builds up on one side, it doesn’t take much to force a reset, especially in tight vacation conditions.”
Altcoins also experienced forced selling, although on a smaller scale. Solana recorded $34.5 million in liquidations, while XRP and Dogecoin recorded $14.5 million and $11.8 million, respectively. The concentration of losses in large companies suggests that institutions and large operators were the most affected by the measure, and not just retail speculation.
Despite the magnitude of the sell-offs, spot prices avoided a broader collapse, reinforcing the view that the event reflected positioning excesses, not a decisive change in market trend.
Still, traders warn that the repeated and prolonged waves point to a deterioration in the market structure. Until leverage cools and spot-led demand returns, volatility is likely to remain skewed to the downside, with rallies vulnerable to abrupt reversals.
