Bitcoin’s climb above $118,000 and into a fresh all-time high sparked a sweeping liquidation event across the crypto derivatives market. According to data cited from Coinglass, more than $1.24 billion in positions were liquidated over a 24-hour period ending July 11, with short sellers taking by far the largest hit. Short liquidations alone exceeded $1.11 billion, making it the largest single-day short wipeout reported so far this year.
A breakout rally caught bearish traders off guard
The market move highlighted how aggressively some traders had positioned against the rally. While short liquidations surged past the $1.1 billion mark, long liquidations during the same period came in at only about $120 million. That imbalance pointed to a market where bearish bets were heavily exposed as prices moved sharply higher.
In total, roughly 261,866 traders were liquidated during the 24-hour window. The largest single liquidation was a BTC/USDT contract on HTX worth $88.55 million. The scale of that one forced closure underscored the role leverage continues to play in accelerating market moves once prices break through key levels.
Major exchanges absorbed most of the forced closures
Liquidations were spread across the largest derivatives venues rather than being concentrated on one platform. Bybit recorded the highest amount, with around $291 million in liquidations, and more than 98% of that total came from short positions. HTX followed with roughly $133 million, while Gate, OKX, and Binance rounded out the top five with approximately $71.8 million, $54.61 million, and $54.56 million respectively.
This broad distribution suggests that the squeeze was market-wide. As Bitcoin pushed to a new record, short positions across leading exchanges were forced to unwind, adding further momentum to the move and reinforcing bullish sentiment in the process.
Bitcoin and Ether led the liquidation wave
Among major assets, Bitcoin generated the largest notional liquidation totals. With its price up 4.82% over the period, BTC saw approximately $547.59 million in short liquidations compared with just $12.13 million in long liquidations. That difference reflected the extent to which traders betting on a pullback were squeezed as the rally continued.
Ether also saw a strong upside move, climbing 7.04% over the same 24 hours. ETH short liquidations reached about $149.09 million, while long liquidations totaled roughly $22.79 million. The figures showed that bearish positioning was similarly vulnerable in the second-largest cryptocurrency.
Shorts dominated liquidations across other major tokens
The same pattern extended beyond Bitcoin and Ether. Solana and XRP both posted gains of more than 4%, and in both cases short liquidations materially exceeded long liquidations. For SOL, short liquidations came to about $14.34 million, versus $3 million in longs. For XRP, shorts accounted for around $10.98 million, while long liquidations were just $1.15 million.
Dogecoin followed the same trend. With DOGE up 5.91%, short liquidations reached roughly $4.73 million, compared with $1.58 million in long liquidations. Taken together, the top five cryptocurrencies recorded more than $720 million in short liquidations over 24 hours, while long liquidations for those same assets were only about $40 million.
What the numbers indicate
The liquidation data points to a sharply one-sided derivatives market response to Bitcoin’s breakout. Rather than a balanced two-way shakeout, the move was defined by a major unwind of bearish positions. When a rally is accompanied by outsized short liquidations, it often means that upward price momentum is being amplified not only by fresh buying but also by forced buying from traders closing losing short bets.
Still, the data itself mainly captures the immediate effect of the move: a fast repricing of risk in leveraged crypto markets. Bitcoin’s record push above $118,000 did not just lift spot valuations; it also reset positioning across the derivatives complex, leaving short sellers with the overwhelming share of the losses in one of the year’s largest liquidation events.