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Ether Dominates Futures Trading as Shorts See $200M in Liquidations
Crypto markets jumped after the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to hike rates by 75 basis points. The move caught short traders by surprise.
Updated May 11, 2023, 6:42 p.m. Published Jul 28, 2022, 9:35 a.m.
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Crypto markets jumped in the past 24 hours as the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 75 basis points as expected. Bitcoin jumped 10% at one point following the Fed announcement, while ether soared as much as 16%.
Total market capitalization increased 6.4%, one of the biggest gains in recent weeks as risk appetite returned among investors as they priced in lower rate hikes ahead. Ether led gains among majors, with Solana’s SOL, BNB, and Cardano’s ADA up 6.4% in the past 24 hours. Elsewhere, Uniswap’s UNI and added as much as 21%.
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The upward movement caused over $200 million in liquidations on short trades and some $175 million on long trades. Over 72% of all liquidated traders were short positions, meaning a short squeeze may have contributed to some of the price gains among major cryptos in the past 24 hours.
A short squeeze refers to a sharp rise in the price of an asset that forces traders who previously sold short to close out their positions, usually leading to an increase in prices.
Crypto exchange OKX saw over $128 million in liquidations, the most among counterparts, with over 88% of traders betting on lower prices on the exchange.
Shorts are positions betting on market declines, while longs refer to bets on rising prices. Liquidation refers to when an exchange forcefully closes a trader’s leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial margin. It happens when a trader cannot meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).
Ether futures saw over $165 million in liquidations across shorts and longs. Data from Coinalyze shows trading volumes on ether has risen in the past weeks and crossed those of bitcoin - which led futures markets volumes.
$ETH started to dominate $BTC by trading volume on the futures market. pic.twitter.com/0eqUG2KDKl
— Coinalyze (@coinalyzetool) July 27, 2022
A catalyst for higher ether volumes is the network’s upcoming Merge in September, which will shift Ethereum away from its current validation mechanism to a proof-of-stake network.
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Crypto ETFs with staking can supercharge returns but they may not be for everyone
From yield potential to custody risks, here’s how direct ETH and staking funds compare for different investor goals.
What to know:
- Investors can now choose between owning ether directly or buying shares in a staking ETF that earns rewards on their behalf.
- While staking ETFs offers yield, they come with risks and less control than holding ETH in an exchange or wallet.
- Grayscale’s Ethereum staking ETF recently paid $0.083178 per share, yielding $3.16 in rewards on a $1,000 investment.
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