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Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin short positions lost nearly $2.7 billion in 24 hours, the largest short-side liquidation event on record, as price surged toward $70,000.
- Short liquidations made up about 92% of the roughly $3 billion in total crypto liquidations, a far more lopsided ratio than October’s record crash.
- Whether Bitcoin holds above $69,000 will show whether the rally reflects new demand or just forced short-covering.
Traders betting against Bitcoin lost nearly $2.7 billion in 24 hours as the price surged toward $70,000, the largest wave of forced short-position closures in liquidation records dating back to 2021. The move pushed Bitcoin to levels not seen since early June and outpaced the short-side losses recorded during last October’s record crypto crash.
The Scale of the Squeeze
Total crypto liquidations reached nearly $3 billion across 172,108 traders, according to data from CoinGlass. Short positions accounted for roughly 92% of that figure, against $257 million in long-position liquidations, a ratio of more than 10 to one.
The scale of the imbalance distinguishes Wednesday’s move from typical liquidation events, which tend to clear positions on both sides of the market rather than concentrating losses almost entirely among traders positioned for a decline.
How This Compares to October’s Record Crash
The scale becomes clearer against last October’s crash, still the largest single-day deleveraging event in crypto’s history. On October 10, 2025, Bitcoin fell sharply days after setting a record above $126,000, triggering $19 billion in liquidations in a single day.
Short positions made up $2.47 billion of that total at the time. Wednesday’s short liquidations exceeded that figure, without the corresponding damage on the long side that characterized the October event.
A Fast, Concentrated Move
Bitcoin traded just above $69,100 during Asian morning hours Thursday, up nearly 8% over 24 hours after briefly touching $69,900. The move represented a swing of more than $5,700 from Wednesday’s low near $64,100, a range wide enough to trigger stop-losses and margin calls across leveraged positions on multiple exchanges.
The squeeze unfolded quickly and in a concentrated window. More than $1 billion in Bitcoin short positions closed within roughly one hour, with $1.42 billion in Bitcoin shorts liquidated across the full day.
Ether shorts accounted for $1.13 billion of the total, and Solana shorts for $104.67 million. The largest single position wiped out was a $48.8 million Bitcoin trade on Hyperliquid.
A Caveat on the Data
One caveat applies to both Wednesday’s figure and the historical comparisons drawn against it. Binance restricted its liquidation reporting in April 2021 and CoinGlass now publishes only one liquidation order per second from that exchange, meaning the true scale of both events may run higher than the reported totals.
The move breaks a stretch of unusually low price movement in Bitcoin. The asset’s 30-day realized volatility had compressed to levels near the S&P 500’s own volatility in recent weeks, a gap that had narrowed to one of the tightest readings on record before Wednesday’s squeeze reintroduced sharp, single-day price swings.
Whether the Rally Holds
A short squeeze of this size removes much of the positioning that had been working against the rally. Traders holding short positions are forced to buy back Bitcoin to close those trades, and that forced buying itself pushes the price higher, distinct from buying driven by new demand entering the market.
Whether Bitcoin holds above $69,000 through the Asian and European trading sessions will indicate whether the move can extend on its own or gives back part of Wednesday’s gain once the forced buying subsides.
The rally also comes as other crypto-linked assets and legislative developments have drawn renewed attention this week. Ether rose alongside Bitcoin’s advance, gaining roughly 18% to trade near $2,250.
Separate developments this week have coincided with the broader rally in risk appetite across crypto markets. This includes comments from President Trump on regulatory treatment of a major derivatives platform and renewed optimism among CLARITY Act proponents following a White House crypto event,
None of those developments has been directly linked to Wednesday’s specific liquidation pattern, which was concentrated in derivatives positioning rather than spot buying. The relationship between the legislative and regulatory news and the timing of the squeeze itself remains an open question rather than an established cause.
