$1.2 Billion in Crypto Liquidations: Ethereum Hit Harder, Now Shorts Are Under Pressure

Crypto markets saw $1.19 billion in positions liquidated in 24 hours. Relative to market size, Ethereum took a much heavier hit than Bitcoin, and as prices recovered, traders betting on declines were the ones taking losses.

According to figures dated October 9, reported by CoinDesk with data from CoinGlass, more than $1 billion of the liquidations came from long positions—leveraged trades by investors expecting prices to rise. Positions worth $356 million in Ethereum and $298 million in Bitcoin were forcibly closed.

In leveraged trading, liquidation occurs when losses grow and collateral is insufficient, prompting the platform to close a position.

Why was Ethereum hit harder?

Although Bitcoin’s market capitalization is more than five times Ethereum’s, the liquidation amount was higher for Ethereum. For every $1 billion in market capitalization, about $1.2 million was liquidated in Ethereum, compared with $180,000 in Bitcoin. Based on rounded figures, the proportional concentration of liquidations in Ethereum was thus more than six times that in Bitcoin.

The comparison is based not on total losses but on liquidated positions as a proportion of market size. The largest single liquidation in the wave was also an Ethereum position worth about $20 million on Hyperliquid.

As prices recovered, short positions were liquidated

Bitcoin fell from about $83,200 to as low as $80,400 in Thursday’s sell-off. Leveraged positions built up as the price moved between $83,000 and $87,000 throughout the week came under pressure when it broke below that range.

However, after Trump said there would be no attack on Iran before the midterm elections, Bitcoin recovered to about $82,200. The move also caught investors who had opened short positions expecting the decline to continue.

At the time the source article was prepared, 78% of the roughly $25 million in liquidations over the previous four hours came from short positions. In the last hour, nearly $12 million of approximately $13 million in liquidations came from trades betting on a decline. Thus, long positions still accounted for the larger share of daily liquidations, while the direction of liquidation pressure shifted in the final hours.