A quarter of a million crypto traders just got a very expensive reminder that leverage cuts both ways.

Over 254,000 traders were liquidated across major crypto exchanges in a single 24-hour window, according to data aggregated by CoinGlass. The total damage: somewhere between $1.17 billion and $1.31 billion in wiped-out positions.

The overwhelming majority of those liquidations hit long positions. At one snapshot, longs accounted for $996 million in liquidations compared to just $309 million in shorts.

The numbers behind the carnage

CoinGlass, which pulls real-time liquidation data from exchanges including Binance and Bybit, reported a range of 246,000 to 267,000 liquidated positions during the period. The 254,161…