Crypto market sees $359M leveraged liquidations

TLDR

Around $359 million of leveraged crypto futures positions were forcibly liquidated in the past day, clearing crowded bets in Bitcoin, Ethereum and major altcoins without a full spot-market crash.

1. Roughly $359.27 million in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours, led by BTC, ETH and especially XRP, with both longs and shorts wiped out across top venues.
2. The flush was driven by heavy leverage, weak ETF flows and tightening regulation, while total crypto market cap stayed near $2.0393 trillion and spot moves in BTC/ETH remained relatively modest.
3. Derivatives open interest fell slightly and funding stayed positive, signaling a leverage reset that cuts some forced-selling risk but keeps near-term volatility and macro sensitivity high.

Deep Dive

1. Scale And Where Liquidations Hit

Reporting based on Coinglass data shows about $359.27 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, concentrated in major futures and perpetual contracts rather than spot selling.

Bitcoin (BTC) saw about $54.32 million liquidated and Ethereum (ETH) $74.30 million, split fairly evenly between long and short positions, pointing to two-way deleveraging rather than a one-sided crash. XRP was the standout, with roughly $100.27 million liquidated despite only a small price dip, and Dogecoin (DOGE) and Cardano (ADA) also registered tens of millions in forced position closures.

Venue data shows Binance, Gate, Bitget, Hyperliquid and others sharing the hit, with some exchanges skewed to short liquidations (local short squeezes) and others more long-heavy.

2. Why So Much Leverage Was Flushed

The liquidation wave came in a backdrop where BTC and ETH only slipped around 12%, suggesting leverage and volatility, not a major spot crash, did the damage. TokenPost notes that total crypto market cap was about $2.0393 trillion with 24-hour derivatives volume near $726.6 billion, down 7.46%, as traders cut exposure rather than re-leveraging.

Macro and structural drivers were negative: U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw around $4.5 billion in net outflows in June, their worst month since launch, and the EUs MiCA rules just fully took effect, forcing many unlicensed platforms to scale back or exit Europe, including restrictions on Binances onboarding in key markets.

Market-wide leverage metrics show global open interest around $411.13 billion, down slightly over 24 hours, while average funding stayed modestly positive, indicating speculative longs were still present but less crowded than before.

3. What To Watch After A Leverage Reset

Leverage bundles show total derivatives open interest dipping (perpetuals down about 0.49% and futures down 8.52% over 24 hours), and BTC alone saw around $160.47 million in liquidations in that window, suggesting some speculative fuel has been burned off.

At the same time, funding rates remain slightly positive and options data (puts trading richer than calls) point to cautious but still active hedging, so the market is not fully de-risked. With thinner liquidity and lingering macro headwinds, additional volatility spikes are possible even after this flush.

Key signals to monitor are ETF flows, changes in open interest, and whether funding turns sustainably negative (signaling de-risking) or stays positive while macro stays hostile, which would keep liquidation risk elevated.

Confidence: moderate - different data providers quote slightly different liquidation totals, but all show a large 24-hour wipeout in leveraged positions.

Conclusion

This liquidation episode shows how crowded derivatives positioning can produce headline-grabbing losses even when BTC and ETH only move a few percent.

Leverage has been trimmed, but ETF outflows, MiCA-driven venue disruption and cautious options and funding signals mean the market remains fragile, with future volatility likely to track how quickly speculative traders re-lever in a still uncertain macro environment.