Short squeeze triggers $300M-plus crypto liquidations

TLDR

A Bitcoin-led rebound forced a wave of short-covering that wiped out more than $300 million of leveraged crypto positions in a day.

1. Data from multiple venues shows 300450 million dollars of liquidations in 24 hours, with shorts making up the majority and Bitcoin and Ethereum leading.
2. The squeeze followed Bitcoin spiking toward the high 70,000s on macro relief and ETF inflows, with still-elevated open interest and negative funding suggesting a leverage-driven move.
3. Traders now face a higher-volatility regime where crowded shorts and longs can both get squeezed, so funding rates, open interest and macro headlines matter more than usual.

Deep Dive

1. What Was Liquidated

Reporting from derivatives trackers cited by TokenPost shows about 308.99 million dollars of crypto positions liquidated in 24 hours, dominated by Bitcoin at roughly 210.57 million and Ethereum at 122.68 million, with smaller coins like RaveDAO and Solana also hit hard. That is consistent with other outlets that see 350 to 460 million dollars of liquidations in the same window, with roughly 70 percent coming from short positions in some snapshots, confirming a broad short squeeze across majors and select alts. One analysis notes that in a key four hour window, nearly 90 percent of 107 million dollars in liquidations were short side, underscoring how quickly bearish leverage was forced to buy back into the rally.

Confidence: high, because independent derivatives dashboards and several news desks report similar liquidation magnitudes and short share.

2. Why The Squeeze Hit

Bitcoin (BTC) ripped about 5,000 dollars in roughly three days to intraday highs near 79,500 to 80,000, helped by an extension of the US Iran ceasefire that boosted risk appetite and by continued spot ETF inflows, according to coverage from Bitcoin.com and Crypto.news. As price broke higher, heavily shorted BTC and ETH futures were forced to close, generating forced buy orders and pulling the rest of the market up in a classic feedback loop described in the short squeeze explainer on CoinsKid Community. Despite the flush, total perpetual open interest is still around 477.63 billion dollars, slightly higher than a day ago, and average funding rates remain modestly negative, which means many traders are still paying to stay short.

3. What To Watch Next

First, watch funding rates on major exchanges: if they stay negative while price holds high, the system remains vulnerable to further upside squeezes; if they flip strongly positive, overleveraged longs become the next risk. Second, track aggregate open interest; a meaningful drop would signal real deleveraging, while rebuilding OI at these prices could set up more violent two sided liquidations. Third, macro headlines around the Middle East and US rates matter, because this squeeze coincided with easing geopolitical tail risk and strong risk asset performance, so a reversal there could unwind optimism quickly.

Conclusion

A sharp macro assisted Bitcoin rally collided with crowded short positioning, triggering hundreds of millions of dollars of liquidations that were concentrated in leveraged futures rather than spot selling. The result is a market with slightly higher prices but still heavy derivatives exposure, where both bearish and bullish crowding can lead to abrupt squeezes. Monitoring funding, open interest and key macro catalysts is critical if you are using leverage or trading around this volatility.