Volatility surrounding the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision wiped out leveraged positions held by nearly 90,000 traders, with losses unusually balanced between bullish and bearish traders.
While major cryptocurrencies ended the day mostly unchanged, that calm performance masked sharp price swings around the Fed announcement. The sudden moves in both directions triggered a large wave of leveraged futures liquidations.
Data from CoinGlass showed that approximately $286 million in positions were liquidated over a 24-hour period involving 87,294 traders. Long traders suffered about $186 million in losses, while short positions accounted for $100 million, reflecting a market that moved aggressively in both directions before settling near previous levels.
Bitcoin traders on both sides of the market were affected. Around $57 million worth of bitcoin positions were liquidated, with losses nearly split between longs and shorts. Long positions accounted for about $28 million, while shorts represented roughly $29 million. Bitcoin traded between $63,247 and $64,660 during the period, a move of less than 2%, yet the swings were enough to trigger liquidations across both camps.
The largest individual liquidation was a $2.9 million bitcoin trade on Binance.
Ether experienced the highest liquidation volume among major cryptocurrencies, with roughly $58 million in positions erased, primarily from long traders. Ether moved between $1,850 and $1,920 during the session. At the latest update, bitcoin was trading around $63,900, nearly unchanged from the previous day, while ether remained close to $1,900.
The majority of liquidations occurred around Wednesday’s Federal Reserve meeting, when the highly anticipated policy announcement triggered rapid market movements. The event resulted in approximately $188 million in liquidations, including $130 million in long positions.
A notable share of the losses came from equity-based perpetual futures offered through crypto exchanges. Around $19 million in SanDisk contracts were liquidated, along with $10 million in Micron positions, $7 million in SK Hynix contracts, and $7 million in SOXL, a leveraged semiconductor ETF. These products allow traders to speculate on stocks and ETFs through crypto platforms using leverage similar to bitcoin futures.
Most of these liquidations involved bullish bets. Micron’s losses were heavily concentrated among long traders, with about $9 million in long positions liquidated compared with $1 million in shorts. SanDisk saw long liquidations roughly twice the size of short liquidations.
Many traders had used crypto derivatives platforms to bet on continued strength in the AI semiconductor sector, building long positions ahead of the sharpest chip stock decline of the year.
The timing proved costly. SK Hynix shares plunged 17% on Wednesday even after reporting a 557% increase in profits, as earnings failed to meet already elevated investor expectations. South Korea’s Kospi has fallen more than 40% from its June high.
The latest event marked the second major disruption involving equity perpetual futures on crypto platforms this week. On Monday, a single trade on a low-liquidity Korean pre-market venue sent Trade.xyz’s SK Hynix perpetual contract down 19%, triggering around $60 million in liquidations. The exchange has since committed to reimbursing affected traders.
