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Liquidations Tracker ​

The Liquidations Tracker monitors real-time and historical forced liquidations across cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges. Liquidation data reveals where leverage is being destroyed and helps you anticipate cascading price moves before they fully unfold.

[screenshot: liquidations-tracker]

Why Use This ​

When a leveraged trader's position moves against them beyond their margin, the exchange forcibly closes (liquidates) the position. These liquidations create forced selling or buying that amplifies price moves. Large liquidation events often trigger chain reactions -- one liquidation pushes the price further, triggering the next, creating a cascade. Understanding liquidation dynamics is essential for anyone trading crypto derivatives or even spot markets, because liquidation cascades are the primary driver of crypto's signature sharp, violent moves.

How to Get Started ​

  1. Open Liquidations Tracker from the sidebar or search "Liquidations" in the Command Bar (Ctrl+K).
  2. The real-time feed shows individual liquidation events as they happen, with size, direction, exchange, and asset.
  3. Use the Aggregate view to see liquidation totals over 1-hour, 4-hour, and 24-hour windows.
  4. Switch to the Heatmap tab to see liquidation clusters on a price chart -- these show where future liquidations are likely to occur.
  5. Filter by asset, exchange, or minimum size to focus on the liquidations that matter.

Understanding Liquidations ​

How Liquidations Work ​

When you open a leveraged position (say, 10x long BTC at $60,000), you put up margin (collateral) equal to 1/10th of the position. If BTC drops roughly 10%, your margin is wiped out and the exchange liquidates your position -- it forcibly sells your BTC to close the trade.

  • Long liquidation: A leveraged long position is force-closed by selling the asset. This creates selling pressure that pushes the price down further.
  • Short liquidation: A leveraged short position is force-closed by buying the asset. This creates buying pressure that pushes the price up further.

Cascading Liquidations ​

Cascading liquidations are the domino effect that makes crypto volatility so extreme:

  1. Price drops and triggers liquidations at the first support level.
  2. Those liquidations (forced sells) push the price lower.
  3. The lower price triggers a new set of liquidations at the next level.
  4. This cycle repeats until either the liquidation levels thin out or enough organic buyers step in.

This mechanism explains why crypto often moves in sharp, sudden legs rather than smooth trends. A 2% move can turn into a 10% move within minutes if it triggers a dense cluster of liquidations.

Reading the Liquidations View ​

Real-Time Feed ​

The live feed displays individual liquidation events with:

ColumnDescription
TimeWhen the liquidation occurred
SymbolThe contract that was liquidated (e.g., BTC-PERP)
SideLong or Short
SizeDollar value of the liquidated position
PriceThe price at which liquidation occurred
ExchangeWhich exchange processed the liquidation

Large liquidations (above $1M) are highlighted to draw your attention.

Aggregate View ​

The aggregate view sums liquidations over time periods, showing:

  • Total long liquidations vs total short liquidations in the selected window.
  • Liquidation ratio -- a ratio above 1 means more longs were liquidated (bearish pressure); below 1 means more shorts (bullish pressure).
  • Cumulative liquidation chart overlaid on price, making it easy to see how liquidation events correlate with price movements.

Liquidation Heatmap ​

The heatmap overlays estimated liquidation levels on the price chart. Dense clusters of liquidation levels act like magnets -- price is drawn toward them because market makers and large traders know that hitting those levels will trigger forced buying or selling, providing liquidity.

  • Yellow/orange zones represent moderate liquidation density.
  • Red zones represent high liquidation density -- these are the price levels most likely to trigger cascades.

What Liquidation Data Tells You ​

  • Asymmetric liquidations signal direction. If long liquidations massively outweigh short liquidations, the move down is being amplified by leverage. Once the longs are flushed, selling pressure eases and a bounce becomes likely.
  • Liquidation clusters act as price magnets. Large clusters of liquidation levels above or below the current price indicate where the next sharp move might target.
  • Post-liquidation exhaustion. After a large liquidation event (hundreds of millions in a few hours), the leveraged positions have been cleared. This often marks a local bottom (after long liquidations) or a local top (after short liquidations).

Pro Tips ​

  • Watch for liquidation-driven wicks. A long wick on a candle that penetrates a liquidation cluster and snaps back is a classic sign that the liquidation cascade has run its course and price is ready to reverse.
  • Combine with funding rates. Extreme positive funding plus a dense liquidation cluster below the current price is a high-probability setup for a long squeeze. See Funding Rates.
  • Do not trade into an active cascade. When liquidations are cascading, spreads widen and slippage increases. Wait for the cascade to exhaust before entering a position.
  • Use the heatmap to set stops intelligently. If there is a massive liquidation cluster at a certain level, placing your stop just beyond that cluster means you survive the cascade. Placing it within the cluster means you get swept.
  • Large single-exchange liquidations can be exchange-specific. If $50M in liquidations happen on one exchange but not others, it may be a single large position unwinding rather than a market-wide event.

Common Patterns ​

Long squeeze flush: After an extended rally, a sudden 3% drop triggers $200M in long liquidations within an hour. Price drops another 5% as the cascade runs. Once liquidations taper off, price bounces sharply as the selling pressure was entirely forced, not organic.

Short squeeze rocket: Bitcoin breaks above a key resistance level, triggering a wave of short liquidations. Each short covering (forced buying) pushes the price higher, triggering more shorts. The result is a near-vertical 8% candle in under two hours.

Range breakout with liquidation fuel: BTC has been trading between $58,000 and $62,000 for two weeks. Liquidation clusters have built up on both sides of the range. When price finally breaks $62,000, the short liquidations above provide rocket fuel that pushes price to $66,000 within a day.

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