Crypto exchanges liquidated $803 million in leveraged positions over 24 hours on October 13, with traders betting on semiconductor stocks absorbing losses that exceeded those on major cryptocurrencies. SanDisk perpetual futures alone saw $19.09 million liquidated, compared to $18.78 million for XRP and $19.04 million for HYPE, according to CoinGlass data.
The liquidation cascade began as Bitcoin fell below $81,000 and Asian semiconductor stocks declined sharply. South Korea’s KOSPI fell more than 6% during the event. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix each dropped about 8% on concerns over AI-related valuations and competition from Chinese memory-chip makers. The selloff triggered forced position closures across perpetual futures markets, which allow traders to bet on stock prices around the clock without expiry dates.
Bullish bets accounted for 86% of the total liquidations. Bitcoin and Ether led cryptocurrency liquidations at $181 million and $178 million respectively. SOL saw $60 million liquidated, followed by ZEC at $24 million and NEAR at $22 million. The tokenized stock index SOXL recorded $7.21 million in liquidations.
Binance accounted for half of all liquidations across the 10 exchanges tracked. The largest single wipeout was a $9.65 million Bitcoin long position on Binance, which closed at $81,773.
The liquidation event accelerated in the final 12 hours of the 24-hour period, with $595 million forced closed during that window. After Bitcoin recovered above $83,000, the pattern reversed. Over the subsequent four hours, $74 million was liquidated, with 79% of those positions holding short bets. Oil contracts showed opposite momentum, with short positions dominating as Brent crude held near $106 following a three-day rally.
The scale of losses on chip-stock perpetual futures underscores how much leverage on crypto exchanges now concentrates on tokenized equities. A total of 172,113 traders were hit by liquidations during the 24-hour period.
