coindesk.com
Unusually high liquidations on some altcoin futures led by Big Time’s BIGTIME and Ordi Protocol’s ORDI tokens created over $250 million in total altcoin liquidations in the past 24 hours, showcasing the inherent and sudden volatility of the sector.
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 is unable to meet the margin requirements for a leveraged position (fails to have sufficient funds to keep the trade open).
These figures were without the liquidations of futures trading bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH), which topped the charts at a cumulative $85 million in evaporated bets.
Some $15 million in ORDI bets were liquidated, followed by $12 million on BIGTIME. These consisted of both longs, or bets on higher prices, and shorts, or bets against. Prices of both these tokens whipsawed in the past 24 hours, impacting traders on either side.
Demand for Bitcoin-linked tokens has created hype for ORDI, which is tied to Bitcoin’s ecosystem – with the tokens gaining 580% in the past month. Meanwhile, an ongoing narrative for crypto gaming platforms has benefited BIGTIME holders, who have gained nearly 400% since the start of November.
Traders of Celestia’s TIA and Memeland’s MEME – both tokens were issued last month – lost some $10 million.
Elsewhere, bets on tokens tied to Terra’s once-titan ecosystem soured, with traders of LUNC, USTC and LUNA losing some $11 million. Prices of these tokens surged up to 70% on Monday on various catalysts, as CoinDesk reported.
Large liquidations can signal the local top or bottom of a steep price move, which may allow traders to position themselves accordingly.