Cryptocurrency market traders were hit on both sides on Monday afternoon, with over $400 million in liquidations on long and short positions in the last 4 hours.
Bitcoin soared from $67,500 to over $71,200 on Monday afternoon after US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had ordered the Pentagon to postpone all attacks on Iranian power plants for five days, saying the US and Iran had “very good and productive conversations.”
Then Iran reportedly denied everything.
“There is no direct or indirect communication with Trump,” Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing an anonymous source, adding that Trump “withdrew after hearing that our targets would be all power plants in West Asia.” Bitcoin returned approximately $1,200 from its high in a matter of minutes.
CoinGlass data shows $415 million in liquidations in the four-hour window around the two holders, with short liquidations accounting for $280 million and long liquidations taking $135 million. The nearly 2-to-1 ratio suggests the market was strongly positioned for an rally when Trump’s position arrived.
Of the total liquidations, bitcoin represented $140 million, ether $120 million, and Brent oil futures on Hyperliquid $64 million. Tokenized gold lost $20.9 million, while tokenized silver losses amounted to $19.8 million.
Meanwhile, oil sell-offs were almost entirely unilateral.
The XYZ:BRENTOIL contract on Hyperliquid saw $64.4 million wiped out, with the vast majority reaching long positions that had been positioning for Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to trigger an attack on Iran’s power plants rather than a postponement. Those traders were right about the direction of the war, but they were wrong about the direction of Truth Social’s next post.
Bitcoin spent the Asian session fluctuating between $67,500 and $68,500, rose $3,700 in an hour on Trump’s post and then lost $1,200 when Iran’s denial came.
On Monday night, it was at $70,000, up 2.3% on the day, sitting in the middle of a range that was forged in a few hours of headline-driven volatility.
The session reinforced what Binance spot futures data signaled earlier this month. When derivatives dominate trading activity at five times spot volume, each holder is amplified through liquidation cascades in both directions. The short ones are squeezed in the de-escalation message, then the long ones are trapped when the counterholder arrives.
The net move ends up being modest, but the damage to leveraged traders is not.
