Ethereum coin bearing the center of a crypto leverage cascade as Bitcoin remains steadier

Ether Traders Took the Hardest Hit in Crypto’s $1.19 Billion Leverage Flush

By Isaac • October 9, 2026 11:07 am • Comments

Ether traders just got the harsher version of a lesson the crypto market never stops teaching: leverage feels brilliant until the exit gets crowded.

A late-week selloff triggered roughly $1.19 billion in liquidations across crypto over 24 hours. More than $1 billion came from bullish positions, but the striking part was where the damage landed.

CoinDesk found that Ether positions accounted for about $356 million of the wipeout, topping Bitcoin’s roughly $298 million even though Bitcoin’s market value is more than five times larger. Ether fell more than 3% to around $2,490 during the move, while Bitcoin lost about 1%.

Trending: Bitcoin’s $81,000 Break Turns Into a $1 Billion Leverage Washout

Adjusted for market size, Ether’s liquidation rate worked out to roughly $1.2 million for every $1 billion of value. Bitcoin’s rate was closer to $180,000.

That put the pressure on ETH at about six times Bitcoin’s rate. The largest single casualty was reportedly a nearly $20 million Ether position on Hyperliquid.

The market had already shown how quickly leverage can turn in the opposite direction. Earlier in the month, one analyst pointed to strong spot buying as Bitcoin tested the $86,000 level:

Then the same kind of fast move punished traders leaning the other way, with $120 million in Bitcoin shorts reportedly liquidated in one hour:

Those two snapshots show how quickly leverage punishes whichever side gets crowded. This week’s market was loaded with borrowed conviction.

When prices broke lower, exchanges automatically closed positions whose collateral could no longer support them. Those forced sales added pressure to an already falling market.

Macro nerves supplied the spark. Federal Reserve minutes indicated that most officials expected another rate increase before year-end, while renewed geopolitical concerns pushed oil higher.

Traders had spent the week building leverage as Bitcoin moved between roughly $83,000 and $87,000. That left plenty of fuel once the range failed.

Solana positions added about $71 million in liquidations, XRP about $34 million and NEAR about $25 million, according to the reported data. The losses were broad, but Ether’s burden was unusually heavy for its size.

The clean takeaway is that ETH traders were carrying far more liquidation risk relative to the asset’s size. When everyone reaches for the same leveraged upside, even a modest decline can turn into a mechanical cascade.

That leverage has now been cut sharply. Whether the cleanup becomes a durable base or merely a pause will depend on spot demand, macro pressure and whether traders immediately rebuild the same crowded bets.

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