Bitcoin-Fueled Sell-Off Triggers $1.1 Billion in Crypto Liquidations

• Bitcoin drove $468M of $1.1B in liquidations, affecting over 126K traders in 24 hours.
• Short positions dominated, with HTX seeing 96.74% of liquidations on the short side.
• Binance recorded the largest single liquidation, a $98.1M BTC/USDT position closed.

Over $1.1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated within 24 hours, as price movements led to widespread margin calls across global exchanges. Phoenix Group’s data, published on July 14, confirmed that 126,238 traders were affected during the event. The majority of the liquidations came from short positions, which showed high-risk trading behavior amid ongoing market volatility.

Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for the largest share of the total liquidations, recording approximately $468.23 million cleared, equivalent to around 3,800 BTC. This positions Bitcoin as the single largest driver of the liquidation event. Ethereum (ETH) followed with $80.36 million in liquidated positions, corresponding to about 26,400 ETH.

Other major assets also experienced major liquidations. XRP saw $20.36 million liquidated, or nearly 6.87 million tokens. XLM and SOL followed, with $14.48 million and $10.58 million, respectively. A lesser-known token, PENGU, registered $10.20 million in liquidations. Additional tokens such as DOGE, SUI, and HBAR each recorded losses above $7 million. Meme-related coins like PEPE, WIF, and ADA also ranked among the top twelve in liquidation volume.

Exchanges See Disproportionate Impact Across Positions

Bybit processed the highest liquidation volume among all exchanges, reaching $239.30 million. Binance followed with $212.01 million, while HTX reported $137.09 million. Other exchanges such as Gate, OKX, Hyperliquid, Coinex, and Bitfinex experienced lower volumes, with Coinex and Bitfinex both under the $11 million mark.

Short positions made up the majority of liquidations on most platforms. HTX reported the highest short liquidation ratio at 96.74%, showing an outsized impact on bearish traders. OKX was the only exchange with a more balanced distribution, where 31.02% of liquidations came from long positions. One of the day’s largest single events occurred on Binance. A BTC/USDT trade worth $98.10 million was forcibly closed, marking the largest individual liquidation during the period.

The increase in liquidation volume was followed by large price volatility throughout the crypto market, resulting in rampant margin calls. These sudden halts are indicative of traders’ amplified extent of leverage and exposure to risk.