Crypto Liquidations Reach $1.187 Billion in 24 Hours

By Daniel Okafor

A Nov. 9 snapshot recorded $1.187 billion in crypto derivatives liquidations over 24 hours. Long positions accounted for $1.042 billion, or about 88%, of that total.

Short positions contributed the remaining $145 million, taking the two sides to the full $1.187 billion tally. The $1.042 billion-to-$145 million imbalance shows that the period was defined less by a two-sided unwind than by the forced removal of trades established to benefit if prices rose.

The snapshot describes the mechanism directly: “A liquidation closes a leveraged position when its margin can no longer support the trade.” It also defines longs as “trades set up to benefit from rising prices.” Those passages frame the $1.187 billion total as forced closures of leveraged positions. The snapshot does not state that $1.187 billion in tokens or dollars changed hands, and it provides no price move, news catalyst or collateral path behind the closures.

How large were Ether and Bitcoin liquidations?

Ether accounted for $505 million in liquidations, compared with $318 million for Bitcoin, putting Ether $187 million above Bitcoin among the two assets named in the snapshot.

Together, the Ether and Bitcoin totals reached $823 million. That represented about 69% of the $1.187 billion liquidated across crypto assets, leaving $364 million tied to other assets.

The $823 million concentration was substantial but incomplete: $823 million of the total came through Ether and Bitcoin, while $364 million involved the rest of the market. The snapshot provides no venue-by-venue breakdown for that other-asset remainder.

The source identifies Ether as the leader among the two named assets, while the $364 million remainder appears only as a combined figure for other assets. It does not disclose individual totals for any other token, stablecoin or crypto asset.

What was the largest individual order?

The largest individual liquidation was a $48.16 million ETH/USDT order on Binance. The order sat within the $505 million Ether total, rather than adding to the marketwide $1.187 billion figure.

For the holder of the $48.16 million ETH/USDT position, the operational event was termination of the leveraged trade because its margin could no longer support it. The snapshot does not identify the trader, the wallet, the entry price or the exact liquidation price.

The $48.16 million figure also shows that the Ether total covered more than one closure, although the source provides no count of orders or positions. It does not provide Binance’s full liquidation total or show whether the $48.16 million order sat within a larger concentration of exchange orders.

What changed in the derivatives market?

The $1.042 billion in liquidated longs removed exposure designed to benefit from rising prices, while $145 million in liquidated shorts removed exposure designed to benefit from falling prices. The resulting mix was heavily weighted toward long closures.

The $1.042 billion-to-$145 million imbalance shows where the margin pressure landed during the 24-hour period. It does not establish that every liquidating trader lost $1.042 billion, or that the positions represented equivalent spot-market selling.

The Nov. 9 snapshot also leaves several operational questions open. It gives no leverage ratio, liquidation threshold, exchange attribution beyond the $48.16 million ETH/USDT order on Binance, or information about whether collateral was withdrawn, transferred or redeployed after closure.

What comes next?

The next market-structure checkpoint is whether collateral released through the $1.042 billion in long liquidations returns to trading or remains sidelined. The Nov. 9 snapshot provides no deadline for that redeployment, but it establishes the scale of the long exposure that was forcibly closed.