Longs Take 77% of $192 Million Liquidated From Crypto Market in 24 Hours
Key Takeaways
- •Cryptocurrency futures markets recorded $192.07 million in forced liquidations during the 24 hours ending at 11:00 UTC on October 18, 2026, based on COINOTAG figures.
- •Long positions accounted for $148.06 million, or 77.09%, of all liquidations, approximately 3.4 times the value closed on the short side.
- •Short liquidations totaled $44.01 million, representing the remaining 22.91% of the period's forced closures.
- •A liquidation happens when an exchange forcibly closes a leveraged position because its margin is insufficient, with longs hit when prices fall and shorts when prices rise.
- •The figures cover only a fixed 24-hour window, so any change in the long-to-short liquidation balance would have to appear in data for later periods.
Longs Take 77% of $192 Million Liquidated From Crypto Market in 24 Hours
Leveraged futures traders across the cryptocurrency market lost $192.07 million to forced liquidations in the 24 hours leading up to 11:00 UTC on October 18, 2026, according to figures published by COINOTAG.
The split between the two sides of the market was heavily lopsided. Long positions accounted for $148.06 million, or 77.09% of everything closed out, roughly 3.4 times the $44.01 million recorded in short liquidations, which made up the remaining 22.91%.
A liquidation occurs when a derivatives exchange forcibly closes a trader's leveraged position because the margin backing it is no longer sufficient to keep it open. Long positions are liquidated when prices move lower, while short positions are liquidated when prices move higher, which is why the long-to-short liquidation ratio is commonly used to show which side of the leveraged market absorbed the larger share of forced closures over a given period.
Because these tallies count only positions closed by exchanges — not trades that traders exited on their own — liquidation figures are widely used as a gauge of where leveraged exposure came under the most pressure during a given window. Here, the mechanics cut in one direction: with longs making up more than three-quarters of closures, leveraged buyers positioned for higher prices absorbed the clear majority of the forced closures.
The figures cover a fixed 24-hour window ending at 11:00 UTC on October 18, 2026, so any shift in the long-to-short balance would have to show up in subsequent liquidation data covering the next period.
This content was first published on COINOTAG.
