Nearly $1 billion in crypto bets liquidated as bitcoin, ether and XRP slide

Nearly $483 million in bitcoin and ether futures positions were closed over the past 24 hours as cryptocurrency prices fell Thursday, with ether traders taking the largest hit.

Crypto losses worsened on Thursday morning as uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s next interest-rate decision weighed on markets. Bitcoin traded around $81,000, down roughly 3% over 24 hours, while ether lost more than 6% to about $2,350. XRP and Solana’s SOL fell around 5%, and dogecoin dropped roughly 6%.

Ether contracts accounted for about $286 million of liquidations, compared with $197 million for bitcoin, according to CoinGlass data checked during Asian morning hours. Ether fell about 6.4% to $2,356, while bitcoin lost roughly 3.2% to trade around $81,000.

Liquidations happen when traders use borrowed money and a price move leaves them without enough collateral to keep their bets open. The exchange closes the position automatically. Someone using $1,000 to control a $10,000 position, for example, can lose their backing on a move of less than 10% against them.

Those closures can add pressure to a falling market, forcing traders out regardless of whether they wanted to sell at that price.