Derivatives Daily: $193.8M Liquidated in 24h as BTC ETFs Shed $296M
Crypto derivatives markets extended a two-day deleveraging streak, with total liquidations across major exchanges reaching $193.8 million in the past 24 hours. Short positions took the brunt of the damage, accounting for 73.8% of the wipeout ($143.0M) versus $50.8M in long liquidations — a signature of a short squeeze rather than a long-side flush. Ethereum led the coin-level carnage at $50.7M liquidated, followed by Bitcoin at $38.3M and ZEC at $34.2M, an unusually large print for a mid-cap asset that placed it just below BTC in total liquidated value.
Liquidation Cascade Already Cooling
The damage was front-loaded. Just $2.7M was liquidated in the trailing 1 hour and $14.9M in the trailing 4 hours, compared to $124.7M over 12 hours and the full $193.8M over 24 hours — meaning roughly $110M of the day's forced closures happened between 4 and 12 hours ago, with the cascade largely spent since. Binance carried 44.8% of the day's liquidation volume ($86.9M), OKX another 26.0% ($50.4M), and Bybit 9.3% ($18.1M). The single largest print was a $2.38M ETH short liquidated on Aster at $2,452.46, followed by a $2.0M ETH long wiped on Binance at $2,417.81 — evidence that both sides of the ETH order book got squeezed as price whipsawed through the move.
ETF Outflows Deepen on Both Coins
ETF flows point to fading spot demand even as futures shorts got squeezed. BTC spot ETFs shed $296.0M on September 16, the third outflow day of the past four sessions, dragging assets under management down to $95.19B from $99.52B a week earlier and pulling the 7-day net flow to -$1,049.0M. ETH ETFs mirrored the pattern, losing $224.1M on the same day with AUM falling to $15.16B; the ETH 7-day sum sits at -$47.4M, a smaller net drain but one concentrated in the last two sessions after a mid-week inflow of $121.0M on September 14.
Options Pin Above Spot, Sentiment Turns Greedy
BTC options open interest stands at $33.93B across 440,999 BTC, with a put/call OI ratio of 0.565 and put/call volume ratio of 0.798 — both skewed toward calls. Max pain for today's September 18 expiry sits at $77,500, about 1.5% above the $76,351 index price, while the far larger September 25 expiry ($14.42B in OI, split $9.39B calls to $5.03B puts) carries a max pain of $72,000, roughly 5.7% below spot. Market-wide open interest across all derivatives is $113.5B on $159.0B of 24h volume, and average funding sits at just 0.0028% per 8 hours — barely positive despite the short squeeze. The Fear & Greed Index climbed to 56 (Greed) from 51 a day earlier, and the altseason index reads 92, though that print is based on only two sampled large-caps and should be read as directional rather than definitive.
Verdict: the tape favors continuation of the squeeze while BTC holds above the $75,500 area where Wednesday's long liquidations clustered, with the $77,500 max-pain print acting as a magnetic short-term ceiling into today's expiry. A drop back below $74,000 alongside funding turning negative and long liquidations overtaking shorts on a rolling 4-hour basis would invalidate the squeeze thesis and open a path toward the $72,000 max pain level anchoring the September 25 expiry. Data as of 08:05 Beijing time on Sep 18, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit and other major venues.