Short traders suffered the biggest single-day losses since April, with over $178 million worth of bets against crypto tokens liquidated in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. The total liquidations, including longs and shorts, exceeded $203 million, with Bitcoin (BTC) futures racking up $75 million in losses and Ether (ETH) futures at $51 million. Pepecoin (PEPE) futures saw the highest losses among altcoins at just under $10 million.
Liquidation occurs when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial margin. Binance recorded the most losses among exchanges at $65 million, followed by OKEx at $58 million.
Bitcoin recently touched the $30,000 level for the second time this year, likely due to a flurry of ETF filings in the U.S. and bullish sentiment among traders. This has caused a rally among major tokens, with Cardano’s ADA, Solana’s SOL, and Dogecoin (DOGE) posting weekly gains of at least 18%. Options traders are now betting on even higher prices.
“Bitcoin’s rally is part of a larger trend signaling a shift towards Bitcoin as a distinctly strong and established store of value,” shared Alex Adelman, CEO of Bitcoin rewards app Lolli. “The recent burst of Bitcoin ETF applications from leading institutions like BlackRock, Fidelity, and Invesco shows that new regulatory guidelines are the greenlight institutions have been waiting for to launch Bitcoin-based products and meet client demand.”