Bitcoin Breaks $71K as Crypto Short Liquidations Hit Record $3B

Traders who bet against cryptocurrencies suffered $2.74 billion in losses within 24 hours, surpassing the short-side liquidations recorded during the October 2025 market crash, which remains the largest liquidation event in crypto history.
Short sellers lost nearly $2.7 billion as Bitcoin climbed above $71,000, marking the biggest wave of forced short-position closures in data dating back to 2021.
Total crypto liquidations approached $3 billion across 172,108 traders, according to CoinGlass. Shorts represented about 92% of the total, compared with $257 million in long liquidations, putting the imbalance at more than 10-to-1.
A liquidation occurs when an exchange forcibly closes a leveraged position after a trader’s losses consume too much of their margin and they no longer have enough collateral to keep the position open.
The scale becomes clearer when compared with October 2025. On Oct. 10, Bitcoin plunged shortly after reaching a record above $126,000, triggering roughly $19 billion in liquidations in one day. That remains the largest deleveraging episode in crypto markets, with short positions accounting for about $2.47 billion.
Wednesday’s short liquidations exceeded that previous record, even though the latest move did not produce comparable losses among long traders.
Bitcoin was trading around $69,100 during Thursday’s Asian session, up nearly 8% over 24 hours after reaching almost $69,900. The move represented a rebound of more than $5,700 from Wednesday’s low near $64,100 and brought BTC back to levels last seen in early June.
The liquidation wave unfolded rapidly, with more than $1 billion in Bitcoin short positions wiped out within roughly an hour and about $1.42 billion liquidated over the full day.
Ether accounted for approximately $1.13 billion of the liquidations, while Solana contributed around $104.67 million. The biggest individual position closed was a $48.8 million Bitcoin trade on Hyperliquid.
The liquidation figures should be viewed with some caution. Binance limited its liquidation data reporting in April 2021, while CoinGlass records only one liquidation order per second from the exchange. As a result, Wednesday’s total and historical comparisons could both be lower than the actual amounts.
Bitcoin’s ability to remain above $71,000 during European trading will be an important test. A short squeeze of this magnitude removes many of the bearish positions that helped accelerate the rally, meaning a move powered primarily by forced buying rather than new demand could eventually give back part of its gains.