Bitcoin short squeeze wipes $2.16B from bearish bets

Ethereum and Solana also saw short liquidations, as did Hyperliquid's HYPE token. But Bitcoin dominated the scoreboard by a wide margin.

The setup for this squeeze was visible in the data well before the fireworks started. Total market-wide open interest had exceeded $127 billion heading into the event, signaling heavy derivatives activity across the board. Much of that positioning was bearish. Elevated short interest across perpetual futures markets on platforms like Binance, Bybit, and Hyperliquid created a powder keg of leveraged bets against rising prices.

While crypto has seen larger total liquidation events – an October 2025 event saw roughly $19 billion in total liquidations – the concentration of this particular event in short positions makes it distinctive. The forced closure of $2.16 billion in short exposure removed a significant layer of bearish pressure, Coinglass data shows.

With open interest still elevated above $127 billion across exchanges, the raw material for another liquidation cascade remains in place. The concentration of trading volume on a handful of major platforms, primarily Binance, Bybit, and Hyperliquid, also raises questions about liquidity fragmentation in crypto derivatives. When billions of dollars in liquidations flow through a small number of venues in rapid succession, the price impact can be amplified compared to more distributed markets.