Crypto shorts take the brunt of $102 million liquidation wave

Crypto derivatives traders had a rough day on February 21, 2026. Over a 24-hour window, roughly $102 million in leveraged positions were forcibly closed, and the bets on falling prices did most of the bleeding. Short positions accounted for $74.11 million of the total, according to Coinglass data reported by Chaincatcher via KuCoin news. The bears expected a drop. The market had other ideas. Where the damage landed Long positions, the bets on rising prices, made up $27.5 million of the liquidations. That puts shorts ahead of longs by more than two to one. Bitcoin short liquidations came to $23.54 million. Ethereum came in at $10.90 million. The headcount was large too. More than 56,000 traders saw positions liquidated during the period. That said, there was one whale story. The single largest liquidation was an $8.5 million SOL-USD position on Hyperliquid, the decentralized derivatives exchange. How liquidations actually work In crypto derivatives, traders post collateral and borrow to make bigger bets. If the price moves against them far enough, the exchange closes the position automatically to protect the loan. For a short seller, the danger is a rising price. When an exchange li...