The crypto community experienced a massive wipeout after major tokens like Ethereum and Bitcoin began falling out, with long liquidations surpassing $1 billion in the past one hour of trading.
Summary
- Long liquidations in the crypto market have led to one of the largest mass liquidations in the cycle, surpassing $1 billion in just one hour.
- Fears of inflation and hawkish central bank moves have sent traders into a liquidation frenzy, moving their capital to safer assets.
The crypto market has just witnessed one of the biggest wipeouts of the cycle, with leverage traders completely crushed. Traders are in a state of panic as total crypto liquidations reached over $1 billion in just the past hour. Bybit leads the charge with $712 million in liquidations alone.
The wipeout happened mostly during market-wide meltdowns, due to sharp price drops in the market with major tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) turning red within the past few hours. The extreme volatility in the crypto community has forced positions
According to data from CoinGlass, as many as 406,814 traders were liquidated in just the past 24 hours. The total liquidations come in at $1.74 billion, with $1.04 billion coming in from long liquidations alone, making up more than 95% of the total liquidation. ETH makes up $309 million of the total liquidations in the past hour, meanwhile BTC contributes to $214 million.
Historically, long positions have consistently absorbed the largest losses, with top recorded events eclipsing even the worst equity margin calls and serving as direct lessons in leverage management.
The last major crypto liquidation frenzy erupted sometime in February 2025, when as much as $2.2 billion was liquidated in 24 hours, mainly from long positions. Ethereum holders were hit hardest, followed by Bitcoin. Around 700,000 traders lost positions in the trade fallout.
In the same month, traders also witnessed the domino-effect of the Trump administration’s surprise trade tariffs, which caused panic and forced liquidations across all major platforms. Bybit’s CEO predicted that actual global liquidations exceeded around $8 billion to $10 billion.
Forced liquidations: Why is the crypto market crashing right now?
This time, the mass crypto liquidations were caused by rising interest rates. Expectations of tight monetary policy have a tendency to hurt alternative assets like crypto. When yields on safer assets like bonds and savings go up, crypto becomes a less attractive asset for investors to inject their capital.
After the Fed cut interest rates earlier last week, the rally was short lived as concerns over global inflation and recent economic indicators have left traders more weary about trading in alternative, more risky assets. Just a few days ago, the Gulf central banks cut key interest rates, following suit after the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates by 25 basis points.
On Sept. 22, Bitcoin dropped below the $115,000 threshold. The largest cryptocurrency by market cap dropped from around $114,400 to nearly $112,000 within minutes, before stabilizing near $112,900.
The steep decline coincided with one of the largest long liquidation events of this cycle, where more than $1 billion in leveraged long positions were wiped out within just one hour. This forced selling created a cascade effect, accelerating Bitcoin’s decline as margin calls and liquidations triggered more automatic sell orders.
The Relative Strength Index fell into oversold territory during the big flush, briefly plunging below 20, highlighting the speed and severity of the moves made by traders. Such deep oversold conditions often follow liquidation-driven crashes, as price action becomes less about organic selling and more about forced exits.
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