Since the Bitcoin ETF launch, the liquidation behavior between BTC and Altcoins has diverged significantly. BTC saw a dominance of short liquidations, while Altcoins experienced a strong prevalence of long liquidations — revealing critical market asymmetry.
📈 Main Analysis:
Since the approval of the Bitcoin ETF, the market has presented an interesting divergence between Bitcoin and Altcoins when it comes to liquidations.
On Binance, the Cumulative Liquidation Delta (CLD) for BTC shows that short liquidations exceeded long liquidations by $190 million.
This indicates that, during BTC’s price appreciation, sellers betting against Bitcoin were systematically squeezed and liquidated.
On the other hand, Altcoins told a completely different story.
In the same period, long liquidations outpaced shorts by nearly $1 billion.
This reflects sustained downward pressure in the altcoin market, punishing traders who anticipated a broad altcoin recovery.
🏹 Key Market Dynamics:
While BTC’s uptrend triggered short squeezes,
Altcoins were dominated by long liquidations, signaling failed attempts by traders to front-run an expected “Altseason.”
Since December 2024, this liquidation asymmetry has widened.
➡️ Altcoin liquidations have consistently surpassed Bitcoin’s, suggesting that excessive leverage in altcoins has been aggressively punished as prices continued to trend lower.
⚠️ Implications:
BTC: Price action favored the bulls, forcing shorts to exit via liquidation.
Altcoins: The failed altseason narrative led to a cascade of liquidated long positions.
This shows a clear dislocation in risk appetite:
While traders were correct betting on BTC’s upside, the same bullish bias towards altcoins resulted in significant losses.
Written by joaowedson
