It’s not the kind of Easter surprise traders were hoping for, as over the past four hours, Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a massive 13,520% long-to-short liquidation imbalance, with $9.62 million in longs wiped out compared to just $71,000 in shorts. The move came amid a sharp drop in the price of BTC to lows near $83,800 before a mild bounce to the current level of $84,453.
The sell-off triggered a total liquidation of $35.35 million across the market in the same four-hour window, with 83.6% of the damage coming from longs.
BTC alone accounted for the largest chunk at $9.7 million, followed by ETH at $8.2 million and SOL with $2.45 million in liquidated leverage.
The magnitude of the imbalance speaks for itself. While long liquidations are common in rapid pullbacks, this kind of one-way flush — over 130 times more long positions were liquidated than shorts — shows just how exposed the market had become heading into the weekend. The volatility was enough to drive a total of $165.1 million in liquidations over the last 24 hours, affecting over 119,000 traders.
The biggest single liquidation order? A $5.95 million BTC/USDC position on Binance, according to CoinGlass.
If you look at Bitcoin’s price chart, you will see that the move was steep but quick. After spending some time at around $85,400, Bitcoin took a dip and hit a low of about $83,800. The quick reversal points to short-term overselling, but the damage to overleveraged long positions was already done.
Traders came into Easter Sunday thinking the market was going to go up. What they got was a brutal reminder: When everyone is going the same way, even a little push in the other direction can lead to a total wipeout.
