Bitcoin fell below $106,000 in early hours in Europe on Friday as leveraged traders once again faced huge losses, with nearly $1.2 billion in crypto positions wiped out in the last 24 hours.
The data shows that most of the damage came from long positions, reflecting how aggressively traders had positioned themselves for a rebound earlier in the week.
According to CoinGlass, almost 79% of the total liquidations were long trades, affecting more than 307,000 accounts. The biggest impact was a $20.4 million long position in ETH-USD on Hyperliquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange that has quietly become one of the main drivers of leveraged trading in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin accounted for approximately $344 million in losses, followed by Ether at $201 million and Solana. to 97 million dollars. XRP, and other high beta tokens each saw tens of millions more released from open interest.
Among exchanges, Hyperliquid recorded the most activity with $391 million, followed by Bybit with $300 million, Binance with $259 million, and OKX with $99 million. That combination shows how chain venues are now standing alongside traditional trading platforms during major market resets.
Liquidations occur when traders who use borrowed money to expand their positions can no longer meet margin requirements. In simple terms, if the market moves too much against a leveraged bet, the position is forcibly closed to prevent further losses.
These events can turn into cascading sell-offs when large groups of stop orders are triggered at the same time, creating what traders call a “liquidation loop.”
These loops are often tracked through liquidation heatmaps and open interest data, which can show where large concentrations of leverage are located in the market. As the price approaches these zones, traders closely watch for potential contraction or relaxation events that could define the next directional move.
The Bitcoin crash began on Thursday night when prices fell above the $107,000 level, triggering a chain of forced closures that rippled through derivatives markets.
The measure occurs in a tense macroeconomic context. Renewed friction between the United States and China has dented risk appetite, while a stronger yen and weaker gold prices have increased uncertainty. Bitcoin has now regained most of its gains from earlier in the week, while ether is trading just below $3,900, down about 4% on the day.
