Bitcoin Falls to $62,500 as Exchanges Force Out Leveraged Longs

Bitcoin fell as low as $62,534 on Coinbase by 8:19 p.m. ET Saturday, as exchanges force-closed more than $1.2 billion of long futures bets in 24 hours.

CoinGecko showed bitcoin near $62,810 at that time, down 7.9% in 24 hours and about 16% over seven days. Kraken's low was $62,540.

Longs took almost all of it

Swolecharts recorded $1.29 billion of forced closures in the 24 hours to 8:19 p.m. ET, on seven exchanges. Long positions, bets that prices would rise, accounted for $1.21 billion, or 94%, across 239,754 liquidations. Bitcoin contracts made up $487.9 million, ether $386.2 million and Solana $72.0 million. Binance led at $727.2 million, ahead of Bybit and Gate. The largest single order was a $16.17 million ether long on Binance.

Swolecharts calls the totals a lower bound, because Binance publishes only a sample when trading is busy. Crypto Briefing, citing CoinGlass at 7:17 p.m. ET, put the 24-hour total at $1.9 billion, $1.8 billion of it longs. ChainCatcher, also citing CoinGlass, gave $1.945 billion, 318,286 traders and the same $16.17 million Binance ether-USDT order.

How a forced close works

Many futures traders put down only part of a position's value, called leverage. If losses eat through that deposit, the exchange closes the trade and sells it. That forced sale is a liquidation. It can push the price into the next group of trigger points.

Ether, XRP and the other large coins

Smaller coins fell harder. Prices at 8:19 p.m. ET, per CoinGecko, with 24-hour and seven-day changes. Coinbase and Kraken showed the same direction:

• Ether: about $1,731, down 10.2% and 22%
• XRP: about $0.917, down 8.9% and 21%
• Solana: about $69.11, down 10.7% and 23%
• BNB: about $572, down 9.2% and 17%
• Dogecoin: about $0.0564, down 12.5% and 21%
• Cardano: about $0.145, down 13.2% and 19%

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs posted $185.4 million of net outflows Friday, a seventh straight session and about $1.91 billion since Nov. 5, Farside Investors data shows, matching the SoSoValue figure in a Yahoo Finance report. Black Mint reported Friday that bitcoin ended the week near $68,400.

In our opinion: the closures hit traders still long on borrowed money as the price dropped into the $62,000s. Swolecharts and CoinGlass cover different venues, but both show longs taking more than 90% of the forced sales. The funds do not trade again until Monday.