Short Squeeze Resumes: $545M Wiped, 98.8% Shorts in 1H
The numbers: $545M in 24 hours, shorts on the hook
Across major venues, $545M was cleared in the last 24 hours, and short positions carried 68.5% of the damage at $373.6M. The short squeeze that faded on Saturday is back. The 1-hour window tells the sharper story: $132.4M was wiped in the last hour, with 98.8% of it hitting shorts. The 4-hour window shows $175.3M total and 96.6% shorts. Only the 12-hour bucket looks mixed, with $90.5M in long liquidations, which means the rally had at least one pullback that took out leveraged longs along the way.
BTC leads the squeeze after reclaiming $80K
Bitcoin is the center of the action. BTC shorts lost $198M in 24 hours, about 77% of the coin's $255.9M total. Price action backed that up: BTC traded at $80.8K at the snapshot, up 4.4% on the day, after testing a 24-hour low near $76.6K. The move back above $80K pulled in fresh short sellers at the round number, and the last hour of data suggests those entries are getting liquidated right now. On Binance and OKX, BTC sits at $81.0K and $80.9K respectively, with both venues showing a 24-hour range roughly between $76.6K and $81.3K.
SOL and ETH follow, alt leverage stays crowded
SOL is the strongest major mover at $102, up 7.7% in 24 hours, and its $26M in liquidations are 68% shorts. Binance shows SOL at $102.3 with a low near $93.2, so the rebound has been sharp. ETH is quieter but still meaningful: $167.5M cleared, 74% shorts, with price at $2,516 and Binance/OKX both near $2,528-2,530. The pattern across the board is the same: leverage is piled on the short side after last week's drawdown, and every bounce feeds the liquidation engine.
What to watch: the 12-hour long damage and one odd coin
Two details deserve attention. First, longs were not completely spared: $90.5M in long liquidations over 12 hours shows the market is choppy, not a one-way squeeze, so chasing entries on leverage cuts both ways. Second, XRP is the outlier, with longs paying $9.8M versus $4.5M for shorts, the rare coin where bulls are still being flushed while the rest of the market punishes bears. The Fear & Greed index sits at 74, firmly in greed territory, which historically means the squeeze can extend but also that leverage is rebuilding into an increasingly crowded long side. Data as of 10:25 Beijing time, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major venues.