A 20-minute flush wiped out leveraged bullish bets as Bitcoin slipped under a closely watched price level
Bitcoin dropped below $72,000, and crypto exchanges forcibly closed $125 million in long positions over a span of 20 minutes.
What happened in those 20 minutes
A long position is a bet that the price will go up. When traders borrow to make that bet bigger, the exchange sets a floor. If the price falls through it, the exchange closes the position automatically to make sure the borrowed money gets repaid.
That automatic closing is a liquidation. As Bitcoin slid under $72,000, enough of those floors were breached at once to clear out $125 million in long bets.
Forced selling tends to feed on itself. Each…
