Leveraged crypto longs face $1.35B liquidations

TLDR

Around $1.35 billion of leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in the past day, mostly long bets on Bitcoin, Ethereum and large altcoins.

1. Roughly $1.073 billion of the $1.351 billion liquidations hit longs, with Bitcoin alone seeing about $665 million closed across futures venues.
2. Even after the flush, global perpetuals open interest is around $389 billion and up over the last 24 hours, meaning leverage remains elevated rather than reset.
3. Further macro shocks, including Middle East tensions and imminent US inflation data, could trigger new liquidation clusters if prices break key support zones.

Deep Dive

1. How Big The Long Wipeout Was

Analytics cited in one report show about $1.351 billion in liquidations over 24 hours ending 13 Jul, with roughly $1.073 billion from long positions and $278.7 million from shorts. That is a strongly one sided flush of bullish leverage.

Bitcoin (BTC) was the main driver, with around $664.6 million liquidated, almost all from longs, while Ethereum (ETH) saw about $90 million liquidated and a more mixed profile, including short squeezes. Altcoins such as XRP, Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), Dogecoin (DOGE), BNB, AVAX and LINK contributed tens of millions more, showing the shock propagated beyond the majors.

By venue, a recent four hour window saw about $91 million in liquidations, led by Binance and Hyperliquid, both heavily skewed to long liquidations, with smaller but notable flows on Bybit, Gate and OKX. That pattern reinforces that perp markets, not spot, dominated this move.

2. What It Says About Leverage Conditions

Despite this wipeout, derivatives leverage in crypto remains high. Over the same 24 hour window, global perpetuals open interest rose from 375.33 billion to 388.56 billion, and overall derivatives open interest climbed to 390.6 billion, a gain of roughly 3.5 percent. Average funding rates are modestly positive and have jumped versus the prior day.

At the same time, total crypto market cap only fell about 0.72 percent, from 2.17 trillion to 2.16 trillion. That combination of modest price decline plus large liquidations plus rising open interest suggests leverage was rotated and rebuilt quickly rather than fully drained.

3. Macro And Next Risk Triggers

News coverage ties the liquidation spike to a broader risk off tape. Bitcoin and major coins sold off as Middle East tensions raised energy and rate fears, with hundreds of millions in positions liquidated on that move. Separately, traders are now focused on upcoming US CPI data, which has repeatedly produced double digit percentage swings in BTC this year.

If macro data or geopolitics push risk assets lower again while leverage remains high, clusters of liquidations in BTC and ETH tend to spill into altcoins where liquidity is thinner and slippage is larger. Conversely, a softer inflation print or easing tensions could allow the current deleveraging to act as a base for more stable rebuilding of positions.

Confidence: moderate high, because multiple independent news and derivatives metrics point to the same size and skew of the liquidation event.

Conclusion

A roughly $1.35 billion liquidation wave has shaken out crowded crypto longs, especially in Bitcoin, yet derivatives open interest and positive funding show leverage is far from washed out. For crypto users, the key is that perp driven leverage amplifies both downside and upside, so the next macro shock or relief event is likely to produce outsized moves, with liquidation clusters as the main transmission mechanism rather than slow spot flows.