Key Insights
- Liquidations across several sessions exceeded $338 million, removing long and short positions as sudden price shifts accelerated across major crypto assets.
- Hourly data revealed steep downward moves, wiping out more than $132 million, with BTC and ETH leading most of the rapid forced selling.
- Long traders absorbed repeated losses on December 5, as $105 million vanished in one hour during another fast reversal in a volatile market.
Crypto liquidations have been on a continued rise as sudden market swings erase large leveraged positions across major assets. The rapid reversals impacted thousands of traders, and wiped out long and short positions within minutes. Despite high trading activity, volatility kept traders under continuous pressure from the unprecedented sudden price swings.In turn this drove repeated liquidation cycles in different sessions.
Massive Crypto Liquidation Waves Shake the Bitcoin Market
Updates from TedPillows described a turbulent environment, beginning with a two-hour window in which $85.32 million in short positions vanished shortly after an earlier liquidation of long positions. The broader 24-hour view showed $338.96 million in liquidations affecting more than 120,000 traders as volatility accelerated.
During this period, long positions absorbed the heavier share of losses, totalling $229.09 million as prices moved lower. Short liquidated positions accounted for $109.87 million as conditions from and both sides exposed quick market swings.
The single largest liquidation order reached $17.81 million on the Hyperliquid’s ETH-USD pair.This order illustrated the concentration of leveraged positions on fast-moving platforms. This is where sudden price movements created rapid forced exits.
Crypto Liquidations Downside Surges and Drives Hourly Wipeouts
Cointelegraph’s December 1 update recorded another intense liquidation event. Over one hour, $132.37 million was erased, with $124.14 million coming from long positions during a swift downward shift. Short liquidations amounted to $8.23 million, showing how quickly the selling pressure intensified.
BTC and ETH accounted for $57.36 million and $45.61 million respectively and led in the liquidation activity. SOL and several mid-cap assets faced smaller and notable liquidations, which added pressure across the broader crypto market. This led to the intensifying of the overall selling momentum.
The data reflected a market heavily weighted toward long exposure prior to the downward move. Because of that positioning, traders were exposed to rapid declines that produced a wave of forced selling across multiple assets.
Bull Traps Add New Stress to Leveraged Traders
Another report from Ted on December 5 showed a similar pattern of volatility. In that update, $105.05 million in long positions disappeared within one hour, bringing the total for that session to $107.91 million.
Short liquidations reached only $2.86 million, demonstrating how concentrated the losses were on the long side. Across longer timeframes, liquidations continued at scale. Four-hour totals reached $188.02 million, twelve-hour figures moved to $244.35 million, and the 24-hour window closed with $370.57 million in long positions erased.
More than 129,000 traders were affected as the market shifted.At the same time, the broader market dashboard displayed rising strength, with global crypto market capitalization increasing to $3.19 trillion and trading volume reaching $86.1 billion.
BTC traded above $91,000 and ETH above $3,100, indicating that activity remained high even as leveraged traders faced repeated waves of liquidation.
