BTC and ETH trigger $1.35B liquidations

TLDR

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) helped drive about $1.35 billion in crypto liquidations in 24 hours as falling prices forced exchanges to close heavily leveraged positions.

1. Around four fifths of the $1.35B came from long liquidations, showing crowded bullish leverage in BTC and ETH that was vulnerable to modest price drops.
2. BTC saw roughly $665M liquidated and ETH about $90M, while altcoins like XRP, SOL and ADA also faced tens of millions, amplifying volatility in majors and high beta names.
3. Leverage in derivatives remains high despite the wipeout, so traders should expect choppy conditions, with further liquidation clusters possible if BTC loses key support or macro risks escalate.

Deep Dive

1. Scale Of Liquidations

Recent derivatives data show crypto markets suffered about $1.351 billion in liquidations over the 24 hours ending 13 July 2026, as BTC and ETH turned lower.

Of that total, roughly $1.073 billion were long liquidations versus $278.7 million in shorts, meaning almost 80 percent of the pain hit bullish positions that were using leverage.

The stress was not a one off tick: in a single recent four hour window, another $91.22 million was liquidated, highlighting how quickly margined positions can be flushed when volatility picks up.

2. BTC Vs ETH Impact

Bitcoin (BTC) was the main liquidation magnet, trading near $104,716 and seeing about $664.6 million in positions closed, with an extreme skew to longs at roughly $662.4 million versus only $2.16 million in shorts.

Ethereum (ETH) fell around 4.1 percent to roughly $3,671 with about $90.48 million liquidated, but there the mix flipped, with short liquidations (about $58.69 million) exceeding longs (around $31.79 million), pointing to two way volatility and short squeezes.

Large altcoins joined the washout: XRP, SOL, ADA and DOGE each saw tens of millions of dollars in forced closures, turning a BTC and ETH led move into a broader risk reset across higher beta names.

3. Leverage And What Next

Despite the wipeout, overall derivatives exposure remains elevated: global open interest rose about 3.62 percent over the same 24 hour window, while average funding rates have drifted back toward near neutral rather than deeply negative.

Spot versus perpetuals data show most trading volume still concentrated in leveraged instruments, and BTC dominance slipped slightly while non ETH altcoin dominance ticked higher, suggesting traders are cutting some leverage but not abandoning risk.

Macro risk is an additional layer, with reports of rising tensions around the Strait of Hormuz contributing to risk off moves across crypto and other assets, meaning another volatility spike could quickly retrigger liquidation clusters.

Confidence: moderate given consistent reporting on the 1.35B figure but differing liquidation estimates across data providers.

Conclusion

The 1.35 billion dollar liquidation wave was driven more by crowded leverage in BTC and ETH than by a collapse in fundamentals, but it exposed how fragile positioning had become.

With derivatives exposure still high and macro tensions unresolved, crypto markets are likely to stay noisy, and future price swings in BTC and ETH could again translate into outsized liquidations across majors and altcoins.