Ether absorbed the worst of crypto's $1.19 billion liquidation flush.
About $356 million in ether positions were liquidated over 24 hours, against $298 million in bitcoin, even though bitcoin's market value is more than five times ether's. Scaled to market cap, ether took roughly six times the damage: around $1.2 million in liquidations per $1 billion of market value versus roughly $180,000 for bitcoin, per CoinDesk analysis of Coinglass data. The largest single wipeout was a nearly $20 million ether position on Hyperliquid. SOL bets accounted for another $71 million, XRP for $34 million.
The setup was leverage stacked into a range. Traders piled on all week while bitcoin bounced between $83,000 and $87,000, then the range broke on a double shock: Fed minutes showing most officials expect another 2026 hike, and the Pentagon Iran-combat report that spiked oil.
The pattern here is consistent. Ether is where the leverage lives in crypto. Bitcoin is the asset everyone holds, ether is the asset leveraged traders reach for, so its liquidations outpace bitcoin's whenever the tape breaks range. The counterpoint is just as telling: the moment Trump ruled out an Iran strike before the midterms, bitcoin rebounded to $82,200 and about $25 million in liquidations over four hours were mostly shorts. Longs got washed out of ether, bears got squeezed out of bitcoin. Same 24 hours, two different trades getting punished.
$ETH $BTC
About $356 million in ether positions were liquidated over 24 hours, against $298 million in bitcoin, even though bitcoin's market value is more than five times ether's. Scaled to market cap, ether took roughly six times the damage: around $1.2 million in liquidations per $1 billion of market value versus roughly $180,000 for bitcoin, per CoinDesk analysis of Coinglass data. The largest single wipeout was a nearly $20 million ether position on Hyperliquid. SOL bets accounted for another $71 million, XRP for $34 million.
The setup was leverage stacked into a range. Traders piled on all week while bitcoin bounced between $83,000 and $87,000, then the range broke on a double shock: Fed minutes showing most officials expect another 2026 hike, and the Pentagon Iran-combat report that spiked oil.
The pattern here is consistent. Ether is where the leverage lives in crypto. Bitcoin is the asset everyone holds, ether is the asset leveraged traders reach for, so its liquidations outpace bitcoin's whenever the tape breaks range. The counterpoint is just as telling: the moment Trump ruled out an Iran strike before the midterms, bitcoin rebounded to $82,200 and about $25 million in liquidations over four hours were mostly shorts. Longs got washed out of ether, bears got squeezed out of bitcoin. Same 24 hours, two different trades getting punished.
$ETH $BTC