Bitcoin Liquidations Hit $56.2M as Open Interest Falls 1.8%

At $80,275.10, Bitcoin is under direct liquidation pressure: 24-hour liquidations reached $56.2M, with $37.7M of that total coming from longs versus $18.5M from shorts. The price is down 1.2%, while aggregate open interest has fallen 1.8% to $44.98B. The immediate signal is a long-side flush accompanied by shrinking leverage.

Longs absorbed the shock

The liquidation imbalance intensified over the shorter windows. The latest 1-hour window recorded $26.0M in forced closures, including $26.0M from longs and only $12.4K from shorts. Over 4 hours, total liquidations reached $26.7M, again dominated by long positions at $26.5M against $203.5K for shorts. Across 12 hours, the split remained bearish for leveraged buyers: $36.1M in long liquidations versus $12.6M in short liquidations.

The largest reported event was a Binance BTCUSDT long liquidation at $79,981.40 worth $5.3M. Additional OKX long liquidations were recorded at $81,349.00, $80,379.80 and $80,199.40, showing that forced selling was distributed around the current price rather than concentrated at a distant lower level.

Open interest is being cut

The deleveraging is broad across major venues. Bybit open interest fell 4.0% over 24 hours and 3.1% over 4 hours, while Gate dropped 3.8% over 24 hours and 3.5% over 4 hours. OKX declined 3.0% over 24 hours and 1.7% over 4 hours. Bitget also contracted 2.6% over 24 hours. Binance was comparatively stable, down 0.2% over the same period, with $8.8B in open interest.

Positioning is not uniformly short. The aggregate account split is 48.9% long and 51.1% short, while taker positioning is 52.3% long. Binance accounts remain tilted short at 52.9%, whereas Bybit accounts are 51.2% long and Bitget accounts are 54.8% long. Funding remains positive across most of the main venues, so the long liquidation wave has not yet produced a broad negative-carry signal.

Key levels for the next move

The tactical bias stays defensive while price trades near $80,275.10 and open interest remains below $44.98B. The first downside reference is $79,981.40, the level of the largest recorded liquidation. A break beneath it would keep the long-flush structure active. The bearish liquidation view is invalidated if price reclaims $81,349.00 while open interest rises from $44.98B, because that would point to renewed leverage demand rather than continued forced unwinding.

Data as of 11:05 Beijing time on Sep 20, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.