Hyperliquid becomes liquidation leader as BTC breaks above $111,000

The latest BTC breakout to $111,000 extended the recent wave of short liquidation. Most of the liquidation volumes were concentrated on Hyperliquid. 

The latest BTC recovery to $111,000 created a new wave of short liquidations, following the long liquidations from the past week. In the past 24 hours, a total of $169.75M were liquidated on BTC positions, with $160.53M for ETH liquidations. 

The recent wave of short liquidations follows a late Sunday rally. This trading event is considered unusually volatile and not sustainable, often leading to significant waves of liquidations during a period of relatively thin volumes. 

Despite this, BTC continued the climb into the new week, expanding to $111,121. Futures on Binance had a significant premium at $114,591. 

Hyperliquid became the leader for BTC liquidations

Over $131M of total liquidations happened on Hyperliquid, where usually Bybit or Binance led the day’s activity. BTC open interest on Hyperliquid is back to $2.69B, still below its usual range. 

On Hyperliquid, over 53% of BTC positions are long, below the usual ratio for other exchanges. Overall, 68% of BTC positions are now long. Hyperliquid is a venue for much more aggressive shorting, which continues even as the BTC price expands. 

The biggest BTC position on Hyperliquid is short, with a notional value of $186M and briefly expanding to over $41M in unrealized profit. 

Prominent whales still active on Hyperliquid

During the latest downturn, trader James Wynn did not have any open positions. Trader Machi Big Brother (Jeffrey Huang) is going long on ETH. 

One of the aggressive whales that shorted BTC has also closed those positions, instead going long on ETH. 

On Hyperliquid, whales have switched to shorting BTC at the $113,000 and $115,000 range, shifting their positions. Long positions have accumulated around $88,000, as traders still expect another market downturn. 

The crypto fear and greed index shows fearful trading, though still outside the zone of extreme fear. The market sentiment may shift fast, as BTC is driven by derivative trading, and whales may take up more bullish positions.

Currently, long positions are accumulating more readily in the $106,000 range. Short positions are more sparse, with accumulation at the $112,000 and $114,000 range. BTC remains range-bound, with short-term trading, leading to volatile periods. 

Based on altcoin performance, the market is still solidly in BTC season, as the leading coin outperforms all other assets. BTC dominance is back to 57.2%, as traders seek market direction. Despite the occasional altcoin pump, most of the leading assets had a bigger drawdown compared to BTC. 

The BTC volatility index continues to grow, and is up to 1.92%, from recent lows of 0.88%. BTC has still set expectations for a year-end rally, or a continuation of the current bull cycle. The coin is still vulnerable to short-term aggressive trading, especially during periods of lower trading volumes.

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