Bitcoin Shorts Liquidation Reaches $178M As Bears Record Huge Losses

TL;DR

• Bitcoin bears lost more than $178 million Monday following BTC’s rally.

• Traders on Binance, Huobi and OKX were the hardest hit by shorts liquidation.

Bitcoin Bears Lose $178M

Bearish bets on bitcoin (BTC) saw traders lose more than $178 million in the last 24 hours. This latest development comes after Bitcoin rallied to the $35k level, setting a new 2023 high in the process. 

The rally was fueled by a ticker registration heightening the hopes of an oncoming spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval.

According to data obtained from Coinglass, Bitcoin bears lost $178 million on Monday, which is nearly 50% of the total $400 million in crypto liquidations. Ether traders lost $50 million in liquidations over long and short positions. 

Liquidation happens when a cryptocurrency exchange closes a trader’s leverage position due to their loss of the initial margin. It usually occurs when a trader fails to meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position. 

According to Coinglass, traders on Binance  Huobi and OKX recorded the highest losses. The exchanges saw liquidations worth $50 million each, an indication that most leveraged traders use those platforms. Binance recorded the largest single liquidation order, with the trader losing $10 million in the process.

BTC surged by more than 12% on Monday to reach a new 2023 high of $35,200 per coin. It has now slightly retraced and is trading just below the $34k level at the moment.