Crypto Sees $242M in Liquidations Within Hours Amid Russia-Ukraine Crisis

Crypto markets saw over $242 million in liquidations in early Asian hours as markets reacted to Russian troops moving further into Ukraine in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "special military operation."

• Bitcoin-tracked futures saw $72 million in liquidations – the most among all cryptocurrencies – followed by ether futures at $70 million. Altcoin-tracked futures saw comparatively lesser liquidations than bitcoin and ether, with losses on Solana’s SOL futures reaching $6.46 million, XRP futures reaching $5.18 million, and Dogecoin’s DOGE futures reaching $6.81 million.
• Liquidations in the crypto market happen when a trader has insufficient funds to fund a margin call – or a call for extra collateral demanded by the exchange to keep the trading position funded. They’re especially common in high-risk trading due to the high volatility of assets. It occurs in both margins and futures trading.
• Thursday morning’s moves contributed to over $411 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours. Some 114,700 traders were liquidated, with the largest single liquidation order occurring on OKX, a LINK trade valued at over $3.21 million.
• Crypto exchange OKX saw the highest liquidations at $73 million, followed by Binance’s $48 million and Bybit’s $24 million.
• Over 87% of all liquidated traders were "long’ the market, or betting on higher prices, data from analytics tool Coinglass show.
• The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies plunged nearly 7.8% in early Asian hours
• Bitcoin dropped nearly 8%, while stock futures in Asia and Europe were down 1.5% on average.
• Russia President Vladimir Putin said in an early morning broadcast the "special military operation" in Ukraine was designed to achieve the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” as reported.