Nearly $1 billion in cryptocurrency futures positions were forcibly liquidated over the past 24 hours as bitcoin, ether and XRP slid, with ether traders bearing the brunt of the sell-off.

Ether accounted for nearly 60% of the forced closures across the two largest cryptocurrencies, having fallen roughly twice as much as bitcoin over the period.

$483 million in bitcoin and ether positions closed

Nearly $483 million in bitcoin and ether futures positions were liquidated as cryptocurrency prices fell on Thursday, with ether traders taking the largest hit. Losses worsened on Thursday morning as uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's next interest-rate decision weighed on markets.

Ether contracts accounted for about $286 million of the liquidations, compared with $197 million for bitcoin, to CoinGlass data checked during Asian morning hours. Ether fell about 6.4% to $2,356, down more than 6% over 24 hours, while bitcoin lost roughly 3.2% to trade around $81,000, a decline of about 3%.

Losses spread to smaller tokens

The selling reached smaller tokens as well. XRP and Solana's SOL each fell around 5%, and dogecoin dropped roughly 6%. Solana futures recorded about $31 million in liquidations as SOL declined roughly 5.5%, while Zcash contracts added nearly $19 million, with ZEC dropping about 13%, the steepest decline among the tokens cited. With bitcoin and ether closures accounting for nearly $483 million of the total, the remainder of the near-$1 billion figure was spread across these smaller markets, underscoring how broad the forced selling was beyond the two largest cryptocurrencies.

How liquidations work

Liquidations occur when traders use borrowed money and a price move leaves them without enough collateral to keep their bets open, at which point the exchange closes the position automatically. Someone using $1,000 to control a $10,000 position, for example, can lose their backing on a move of less than 10% against them.

Such closures can add pressure to a falling market, forcing traders out regardless of whether they wanted to sell at that price.

Ether hit harder despite smaller futures market

Ether's damage was larger even though its futures market is considerably smaller than bitcoin's. Outstanding ether contracts totaled about $30 billion, against $52 billion for bitcoin. The liquidation figures measure the value of positions closed, rather than the cash traders personally lost.

The Federal Reserve's upcoming interest-rate decision — the uncertainty cited as deepening Thursday's losses — remained the macro event traders were watching as the session unfolded.

This article was originally published by CoinDesk on Oct. 15, 2026. Liquidation and price figures are attributed to CoinGlass. Original article