Crypto shorts lose $110 million in a 10-minute liquidation burst

Ten minutes. That is reportedly how long it took for $110 million in short positions to be wiped out across crypto derivatives markets.

The $110 million figure covers short positions that were forcibly closed within a single 10-minute window. Research compiled on the event places it on October 2, 2026.

Liquidation trackers, including ByKaranteli, showed heavy short liquidations lining up with a burst of market volatility.

In the 24 hours before the spike, total liquidations ranged from $100 million to $170 million, and shorts often made up more than $70 million of that.

One standout was a $2.1 million ETH short liquidated on Binance. Several multimillion-dollar liquidations in BTC and ETH also hit centralized exchanges.

Recent liquidation events have caught more than 56,000 traders across more than 11 venues.

When the price moves against a leveraged short seller, the exchange closes the trade automatically before losses eat through the collateral. For a short seller, closing the trade means buying the asset back, and all that forced buying pushes prices higher. Higher prices then knock out the next layer of shorts, which triggers still more buying.

CoinGlass data shows shorts have typically accounted for 65-90% of all liquidations during major price surges.