Crypto market traders were whipped on both sides on Monday afternoon with over $400 million in liquidations across long and short positions in the last 4 hours.
Bitcoin rose from $67,500 to over $71,200 on Monday afternoon after US President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he had instructed the Pentagon to delay any strikes against Iranian power plants for five days, saying the US and Iran had “very good and productive talks”.
Then Iran allegedly denied everything.
“There is no direct or indirect communication with Trump,” Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing an anonymous source, adding that Trump “resigned after hearing that our target would be all power plants in West Asia.” Bitcoin gave back about $1,200 from its high within minutes.
CoinGlass data shows $415 million in liquidations in the four-hour window surrounding the two headlines, with short liquidations accounting for $280 million and longs taking $135 million. The nearly 2-to-1 ratio suggests the market was strongly positioned for escalation when Trump’s mail landed.
Of the total liquidations, bitcoin accounted for $140 million, ether for $120 million and Brent oil futures on Hyperliquid for $64 million. Tokenized gold lost $20.9 million, while tokenized silver losses stood at $19.8 million
Meanwhile, the oil liquidations were almost entirely one-sided.
The XYZ:BRENTOIL contract on Hyperliquid was wiped out for $64.4 million, with the vast majority hitting longs that had heeded Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum to launch an attack on Iran’s power plants rather than a reprieve. These traders were right about the direction of the war, but wrong about the direction of the next Truth Social post.
Bitcoin spent the Asia session grinding between $67,500 and $68,500, ripped $3,700 higher in an hour on the Trump post, then faded $1,200 as Iran’s denial hit.
On Monday night, it held $70,000, up 2.3% on the day, and was in the middle of a range it carved out in a few hours of headline-driven volatility.
The session reinforced what Binance futures-to-spot data flagged earlier this month. When derivatives dominate trading activity to 5x spot volume, each headline is amplified through liquidation cascades in both directions. Shorts get pinched on the de-escalation post, then longs get caught when the counter-header arrives.
The net move ends modestly, but the damage to leveraged traders is not.
