Bitcoin fell below $106,000 in early European time on Friday as leveraged traders once again faced heavy losses, with around $1.2 billion in crypto positions wiped out in the past 24 hours.
According to the data, most of the damage came from long positions, reflecting how aggressively traders were positioning for the rebound earlier this week.
According to CoinGlass, nearly 79% of all liquidations were long trades, affecting more than 307,000 accounts. The biggest hit was a $20.4 million ETH-USD long on HyperLiquid, a decentralized derivatives exchange that has quietly become one of the go-to engines for leveraged trading in cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin lost about $344 million, followed by Ether with $201 million and Solana. sol$180.48 For $97 million. XRP, doge$0.1823 and other high-beta tokens each saw tens of millions of dollars more liquidated from their open interest.
Across exchanges, Hyperliquid had the most trades with $391 million, followed by Bybit with $300 million, Binance with $259 million, and OKX with $99 million. This combination shows how on-chain exchanges are sitting side-by-side with traditional trading platforms during a massive market reset.
Liquidations occur when a trader using borrowed funds to expand a position is unable to meet margin requirements. Simply put, if the market moves too far for your leveraged bet, your position will be forced closed to prevent further losses.
These events can turn into cascading declines when large clusters of stop orders are triggered all at once, creating what traders call a “liquidation loop.”
Such loops are often tracked through liquidation heatmaps and open interest data, which can show where high leverage is concentrated in the market. As price approaches these zones, traders will closely monitor for potential squeeze or unwind events that could define the next directional move.
Bitcoin’s decline began late on Thursday, when the price breached the $107,000 level, triggering a chain of forced shutdowns that spilled over into derivatives markets.
This move is against the backdrop of a tense macro environment. The resurgence of U.S.-China tensions is reducing risk appetite, while the strong yen and low gold prices are increasing uncertainty. While Bitcoin has regained most of its gains from the beginning of the week, Ethereum is down about 4% on the day, trading just below $3,900.
