Leveraged long positions absorbed 88.9% of a $774.14 million liquidation wave that moved through cryptocurrency markets in the 24 hours to 02:00 UTC on Tuesday, according to data published by COINOTAG on October 13, 2026.

The distribution shows precisely where the losses landed: approximately $688.56 million of the total came from forced closures of long positions, while short positions accounted for the remaining share — roughly $85.58 million, or about 11% of the wave. That split places long-side closures at roughly eight times the size of short-side closures during the measured window.

What a Liquidation Is

A liquidation is the forced closure of a leveraged position once its margin is exhausted. Traders who use leverage take on exposure beyond their own capital, and an exchange keeps the position open only as long as the posted collateral can cover potential losses. When the market moves far enough against the position, the trading platform closes it automatically to prevent the trader's balance from turning negative.

Why Longs Took the Larger Share

Long positions are wagers that prices will rise. Because cryptocurrency markets operate continuously, leveraged longs can cross their liquidation thresholds at any hour when prices decline sharply enough. A long-heavy liquidation split of this kind corresponds mechanically to downward price pressure on leveraged buyers during the measured window, while the smaller short-side total indicates that comparatively fewer leveraged bearish positions were closed over the same period.

Market Context

Liquidation figures are aggregated across major cryptocurrency exchanges and are widely monitored as a gauge of stress in leveraged trading. As typically reported, these totals capture the value of positions that exchanges were forced to close rather than losses across the broader market, which is why they are treated as a leverage-specific measure rather than a comprehensive tally of trader losses. Many platforms offer perpetual futures with leverage of 50x to 100x or higher, meaning even modest price swings can exhaust a position's margin and trigger automatic closure. Sequences of such closures, often referred to as liquidation cascades, can reinforce price movements in either direction.

The data covers the full 24-hour period ending at 02:00 UTC on Tuesday, October 13, 2026. Closures triggered after that cutoff fall outside these totals and would surface only in subsequent 24-hour readings, making later aggregates the reference point for assessing whether the wave persisted or tapered off.

This content was first published on COINOTAG: https://en.coinotag.com/longs-absorb-774-million-crypto-liquidation-wave