As Bitcoin (BTC) crossed the $88000 mark on Monday, November 11, and neared the $90,000 level, the crypto market was hit by a wave of liquidations with $700 million forcibly closed positions seen across crypto exchanges like Bitget, Bybitmm KuCoin, OKX and Binace.
In the 24 hours leading up to November 11, 177,103 traders collectively lost more than $676.76 million in the crypto derivatives market. Bitcoin traders were most hit by this liquidation storm as they lost $261 million. Of these, the short traders were the most affected as they bet on a BTC price rise but couldn’t cash in when it happened, losing around $212 million while Bitcoin neared the $90,000 mark.
Even long traders faced setbacks as their expectations remained unfulfilled when Bitcoin fell short of the $90,000 target. The resultant effect of the miscalculation triggered a loss of $48.21 million worth of digital assets which were liquidated, as bulls reclaimed the market after months of downturn.
The liquidation storm also impacted other cryptos like Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and Ethereum (ETH) which lost tokens. Even meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Pepe were affected. While $80 million worth of ETH tokens were liquidated in futures contracts in 24 hours, $22 million SOL tokens were lost in that span. The Cardano derivatives market lost $7.13 million and Dogecoin traders $8 million in the liquidation wave.
Ethereum faced a similar fate to Bitcoin as its liquidation was triggered by ETH’s 6% price rise as traders' expectations didn’t match the token’s performance. Short position traders lost $43 million in the liquidation storm while long traders lost $36 million for misjudging ETH’s potential
The liquidation storm was concentrated on centralised exchanges as bulls reclaimed the market after bearish trends observed in recent months. Crypto exchange Binance accounted for 39.24% of the loss in the liquidation wave as $268 million worth of tokens were wiped out followed by OKX losing $169 million in the derivatives market. The biggest loser was a trader on Binance who lost $15.70 million in one trade alone.