One trader lost more than $220 million on an ether position as a new wave of forced liquidations swept through cryptocurrency markets, bringing total losses in the past 24 hours to nearly $2.6 billion.
The largest liquidation occurred on decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid, where an ETH-USD position worth $222.65 million was eliminated, according to data from CoinGlass.
The event came as ether fell as much as 17% in the last 24 hours, along with bitcoin and other major tokens during a period of low liquidity.
In total, 434,945 traders were liquidated over the past day, with long positions accounting for the vast majority of losses. About $2.42 billion of the $2.58 billion total came from bullish bets, while short positions accounted for just $163 million.
Hyperliquid suffered the most severe damage, recording $1.09 billion in liquidations (almost all of them coming from long positions), representing more than 40% of the total losses on exchanges. Bybit followed with $574.8 million in liquidations, while Binance recorded around $258 million.
Ether was the hardest hit by the liquidation, with over $1.15 billion in ETH positions liquidated in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin followed with approximately $788 million, while Solana saw nearly $200 million disappear, according to liquidation heat map data.
Liquidations occur when leveraged positions are forcibly closed due to a price movement beyond a trader’s margin threshold. This typically results in significant losses and can trigger cascading effects during volatile moves.
Traders use settlement data to gauge market sentiment and positioning. Large long sell-offs often indicate that panic has bottomed, while short sell-offs can precede a squeeze.
Spikes in liquidations also help identify overcrowded trades and potential reversals. When combined with interest rate and open funding data, liquidation metrics can offer strategic entry or exit points, especially in markets that are overleveraged and prone to sudden surges or rallies.
Liquidation-driven measures have become more common during periods of low liquidity, where relatively small price declines can cascade through derivatives markets.
