Binance breach turns the crypto leverage machine into a liquidation blender

A selloff in bitcoin, ether and smaller tokens following Binance’s security breach forced the closure of about $1.29 billion in leveraged trading positions over the past 24 hours. Total liquidations reached $1.53 billion by Friday morning in Asia, according to CoinGlass, with long positions accounting for 83.8% of the total. Most of the damage occurred in the latest 12 hours, which saw roughly $1.37 billion in liquidations, including $1.23 billion of longs.

The forced closures followed Thursday’s Binance breach, which the exchange estimates affected about $6.3 billion in assets. Binance pledged to cover losses and suspended deposits and withdrawals while conducting security checks. Bitcoin fell as low as about $76,460 before recovering toward $78,500. Ether traded around $2,240 after dipping below $2,200, while SOL, $XRP and dogecoin also declined.

Bitcoin positions accounted for about $499 million in liquidations and ether added $358 million, together representing more than half of the market-wide total. Solana followed with $82.6 million, $XRP with $38.1 million and dogecoin with $18.6 million. Binance recorded $754.6 million in forced closures, or 49.2% of the total, including about $670.6 million from longs. Hyperliquid followed with $251.4 million and Bybit with $186.5 million. CoinGlass tracked the largest individual liquidation as an $11 million bitcoin long on Binance.

The rebound also began to affect traders betting on further declines. Shorts accounted for $57.3 million of the $85 million liquidated in the latest four hours. In the latest hour, shorts represented $20.6 million of $21.6 million, or about 95%, as traders exited positions by buying back the assets they had shorted.