The cryptocurrency market experienced one of the largest forced position closures in recent weeks. Over 24 hours as of 13:00 MSK on November 15, exchanges forcibly closed the positions of 312,754 traders for a total of $2.02 billion. The main blow fell on the bulls: traders who opened leveraged long positions lost the most — they accounted for 83.6% of all liquidations.

The trigger was the collapse of Bitcoin below the $62,000 mark, as well as Ethereum's fall to $1710. Investors trading without leverage risk seeing even lower prices, but at the same time get the opportunity to buy BTC and ETH cheaper. For novice traders, this is a clear lesson: leveraged trading can wipe out a deposit within hours, even if the price subsequently rebounds.

Which markets were hit hardest

Long liquidations reached $1.69 billion, while shorts — bets on a decline — brought only $329.71 million in losses. The main blow fell on Saturday: of the total amount, about $1.38 billion was liquidated from 13:00 MSK on November 14 to 1:00 a.m. on November 15.

BTC traders lost positions worth $799.12 million, of which 75.9% were longs. ETH liquidations amounted to $486.97 million with a long share of 82.8%. The largest position in 24 hours was closed on Binance — a $16.17 million ETH long at a price of $1792.88.

Holders of SOL, HYPE, XRP, and ZEC also suffered notable losses: $89.29 million, $87.14 million, $47.53 million, and $41.97 million respectively. Almost all closed positions in Hyperliquid exchange token HYPE (97.6%) turned out to be longs. The sell-off affected not only cryptocurrencies: exchanges liquidated positions in gold contracts (XAU) worth $31.54 million.

By midday Sunday, the situation had changed: short position holders lost $248.49 million over the past 12 hours, and from 12:00 to 13:00 MSK their share grew to almost 90% as BTC and ETH prices moved upward. Binance's share of daily liquidations reached 37.9% — more than any other exchange.

The overnight crash and morning rebound

The BTC price declined by about 2.7% over 24 hours, from $67,300 to $65,500. However, the drop within the specified time period was much deeper. Mass selling began around 16:00 on Saturday, and by 18:00 the price had fallen to $65,000. In the evening, quotes rebounded to $66,000, but after midnight the decline continued: overnight Bitcoin lost the $64,000 mark, and around 04:30 updated its low near $62,000. Then buyers returned: by 06:00 the price had risen to $65,200, and around 12:00 it reached $66,000.

Ether fell more sharply — by about 4.4%, from $1910 to $1826. The sharp decline began around 17:00, when the price lost about $40 in an hour, and immediately after midnight ETH dropped below $1800. Saturday evening and the first hours of Sunday brought the bulk of the liquidations. Quotes showed the daily low near $1710 around 04:30, after which the ETH price recovered more than $100 and by midday had risen to $1840.

Why the market proved vulnerable

Nervousness has been building since October 29, when, amid fears of a Binance hack, positions worth $627.7 million were liquidated in an hour, and BTC dropped below $79,000. The attack on the largest exchange undermined investor confidence, and two and a half weeks later Binance is again leading in liquidation volume.

Forced closures rose again a week ago, on November 8: traders lost positions worth $855.69 million in 24 hours, and BTC dropped to $73,708 — its lowest since August. An outflow of about $1.28 billion from U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs over the week meant that not only leveraged traders were selling, but large investors as well.

U.S. inflation data on November 10 came in worse than expected: consumer prices in October rose 0.4% against a forecast of 0.23%, and liquidations in the five minutes after publication reached approximately $200 million. Investors estimated the probability of a Fed rate hike in December at 84%, and with expensive credit, leveraged trading becomes more costly and pressure on BTC and gold may intensify.

Cryptalist analysis: The structure of liquidations — the overwhelming dominance of longs followed by a sharp rise in the share of shorts — points to a classic cascading deleveraging correction rather than a change in the macro trend. Binance's resilience as the leader in forced closure volume amid continued outflows from spot ETFs signals the fragility of the recovery: the market will need stabilization of inflation expectations and an inflow of institutional capital to restore confidence in levels above $65,000.