The cryptocurrency market experienced a substantial wave of liquidations totaling $1.1 billion over a 24-hour period on November 14, 2025. Of this amount, $968 million stemmed from long positions, forcing over 246,000 traders out of their leveraged trades. This event has sparked fresh comparisons with the darkest days following the 2022 FTX collapse.
### Liquidation Wave Hits Major Crypto Exchanges
During this recent 24-hour window, long positions faced $973 million in losses, dwarfing the $131.37 million lost on short positions. The largest single liquidation occurred on HTX, where a $44.29 million BTC-USDT position was forcibly closed.
In just a four-hour timeframe, Hyperliquid recorded $134.16 million in long liquidations, with Bybit close behind at $122.57 million.
Liquidations happen when exchanges automatically close leveraged trades due to insufficient margin. High leverage can trigger these automatic closures rapidly, especially during volatile market conditions. The overwhelming tilt toward long liquidations suggests that many traders were optimistic about the price direction before the market reversed sharply.
### Sentiment Dips to FTX-Era Lows
This wave of liquidations has pushed market sentiment down to levels reminiscent of those seen immediately after the FTX collapse in November 2022. Despite the scale of this incident, it does not rank among the ten largest liquidation events on record. For context, the biggest liquidation spike occurred in October 2025, following the announcement of a US-China tariff, with liquidations reaching $19.16 billion.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s technical indicators are flashing warning signs that have sparked debates within the community. Is this the start of a new bear market, or simply a sharp correction?
### Technical Indicators Signal Market Stress
Market analyst Negentropic drew direct comparisons to the 2022 FTX crisis when assessing the current environment. Bitcoin’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) now resides deep in oversold territory, a level not seen since 2022. Additionally, for the first time in three years, Bitcoin has fallen below its lower volatility band, indicating severe market stress.
The FTX collapse was a watershed moment that erased billions in market value virtually overnight. News surrounding Alameda Research’s troubled finances and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s liquidation of FTT holdings triggered a massive bank run, leading to FTX’s bankruptcy and a sharp drop in Bitcoin’s price as confidence evaporated.
These similarities highlight not only significant price declines but also profound uncertainty among market participants. Lower liquidity across exchanges, diminishing engagement from experienced builders, and rapidly shifting narratives all echo the turmoil that followed previous major collapses — including Luna, Three Arrows Capital, FTX, Genesis, and BlockFi.
### Experts Offer Diverging Market Outlooks
Despite the prevailing negative sentiment, some analysts caution against viewing the situation as catastrophic. Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, outlined a critical threshold to confirm a bear market: Bitcoin holders from the past 6 to 12 months generally have a cost basis near $94,000. He argues that unless prices fall below this level, a bear cycle cannot be confirmed.
This perspective adds nuance to the ongoing bear market debate. The $94,000 mark acts as both a psychological and technical support level for many holders. Should Bitcoin’s price hold above this floor, current weakness might represent a correction within a broader bullish trend rather than the onset of a prolonged bear market.
Contrastingly, Haseeb Qureshi of DragonFly Capital emphasized that the crypto market is not currently facing systemic failures on par with those in 2022. Unlike the cascade of exchange collapses, bank failures, and stablecoin depeggings seen back then, today’s losses mainly stem from declining asset prices.
These divergent expert opinions underscore the presence of uncertainty in the crypto market. While technical indicators and sentiment point to distress, the sector’s core infrastructure appears more resilient than during previous crises.
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As the market continues to evolve, traders and investors alike will be watching closely to see whether this liquidation wave is a sign of deeper trouble or just a volatile correction in an otherwise robust landscape.
https://bitcoinethereumnews.com/crypto/crypto-liquidations-hit-1-1-billion-fear-reaches-ftx-era-levels/
