Ether's $356M Liquidation Spree: Six Times the Pain, One-Fifth the Size 🪦

Ether traders absorbed about $356 million in liquidations over 24 hours through late Thursday, outpacing bitcoin's $298 million in forced position closures despite ether's market capitalization sitting at less than one-fifth of bitcoin's, according to data tracked across the sector. Measured against market value, the damage to ether ran roughly six times deeper, working out to about $1.2 million in liquidations for every $1 billion of market cap, compared with roughly $180,000 for bitcoin. Ether fell more than 3% to about $2,490, while bitcoin lost about 1% over the same window.

Total crypto liquidations reached $1.19 billion over the 24-hour stretch, with more than $1 billion of that coming from longs, or leveraged bets on higher prices. The largest single forced closure was a nearly $20 million ether position on Hyperliquid, a decentralized exchange used for leveraged trading. SOL positions accounted for $71 million in liquidations, XRP for $34 million and NEAR for $25 million, with every other token combined adding roughly $119 million.

The sell-off was tied to a convergence of catalysts. Minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting showed most officials expecting another rate hike before year-end, while a report that the Pentagon was preparing for renewed combat in Iran pushed oil prices higher. Ethereum researcher Justin Drake added to the tension with a warning that artificial intelligence could break the cryptographic math securing crypto wallets sooner than expected, prompting some analysts to urge investors into "bunker mode" against possible AI-driven attacks. Traders had built up leverage throughout the week as bitcoin ranged between $83,000 and $87,000, leaving a dense cluster of positions vulnerable once the range broke.

Bitcoin slid from about $83,200 to as low as roughly $80,400 late Thursday before recovering to about $82,200 after President Trump ruled out a strike on Iran before the midterm elections. That bounce triggered roughly $25 million in further liquidations over four hours, the majority of which hit bearish traders. $BTC and $ETH both remained under pressure into the Asia trading day as positioning data suggested leverage had only partially reset.