Bitcoin Slides Below $72,000 as Long Liquidations Top $220 Million in an Hour
Bitcoin fell to around $72,000 and Ether dropped below $2,000 for the first time since August 19, triggering heavy forced selling in leveraged long positions. Sources differ on the size of the liquidation wave, with CryptoPotato reporting $220 million in an hour and Crypto Briefing reporting $125 million over 20 minutes.
Written by CoinArticle’s AI Newsroom · from 2 cited sources. How we work
Price Action and Liquidations
Bitcoin traded near $72,150 on most exchanges after dropping below $72,000, a multi-month low, according to CryptoPotato. Ether slipped below $2,000 for the first time since August 19, and XRP came close to $1.00, with NEAR falling nearly 10% to below $3.40 among the larger altcoins.
The sell-off forced the closure of leveraged long positions. CryptoPotato reported $222 million in total liquidations in the past hour, of which $217 million were longs, with Bitcoin accounting for $92.61 million and Ether nearly $59 million. Crypto Briefing put the figure lower, reporting $125 million in long liquidations over a 20-minute span. The two outlets measured different windows, so the figures are not directly comparable, and neither source provides a methodology that reconciles them.
What Drove the Move
CryptoPotato attributed the decline in part to comments from US President Donald Trump, who said the country does not need a deal with Iran. Brent and WTI crude futures rose more than 1% over the same period while crypto markets fell. Bitcoin had earlier been rejected near $75,000 after a higher-than-expected US Consumer Price Index reading pushed it below $73,000 on Tuesday.
Crypto Briefing pointed to the same macro pattern, recalling that a November 10 CPI release triggered $570 million in long liquidations in a single day. Its reading of the current move centers on the $72,000 to $73,000 range, which it describes as a recurring battleground, and on liquidation heatmaps showing clusters of long liquidations just below $72,500 with estimated exposure above $1 billion. That exposure estimate comes from heatmap data and has not been independently verified.
Scale of Leverage and Open Interest
Crypto Briefing reported that long liquidations made up 85-90% of total liquidations and that Bitcoin futures open interest stayed above $50 billion through the sell-off. Open interest measures outstanding futures contracts, not the number of traders or the direction of their bets, so it indicates how much speculative exposure remains rather than how much is at risk of being closed.
CryptoPotato reported close to 110,000 wiped-out traders and a single liquidation of more than $31 million on Hyperliquid in the BTC/USDT pair. Neither outlet reported a figure for the open interest total at the time of writing.
What to Watch
Crypto Briefing identified the $72,000 to $73,000 zone as the key level. Sustained trading below it could pull price into the dense liquidation clusters it identified. A meaningful fall in open interest would indicate leverage is being flushed out, while continued open interest above $50 billion alongside price near support would indicate the market remains heavily leveraged.
Why It Matters
For Traders
Liquidation clusters reportedly sit just below $72,500, so price action around the $72,000 to $73,000 zone may determine whether forced selling accelerates.
For Investors
Repeated sell-offs tied to CPI prints and geopolitical comments show Bitcoin remaining sensitive to macro headlines, which bears on sizing exposure over multi-month horizons.
For Builders
Leverage concentrated on a single venue such as Hyperliquid highlights the need for robust liquidation engines and monitoring during fast, cascading price moves.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Read the full disclaimer.
