Top Traders Flip From 94% Short to 80% Long in 14 Hours

Update 20:03 UTC: A fourth CoinGlass reading, taken later on Thursday by 15:50 UTC, shows the short squeeze grinding on even as the headline liquidation count eased: the trailing 24-hour total across the top 20 coins stood at $200.45 million, with short liquidations at $166.86 million, or 82.83% of the flow, roughly…

Four Perp Venues, Top 100 Accounts

Aggregate derivatives position data across four perpetual venues, Hyperliquid, Lighter, dYdX and Pacifica, shows the top 100 accounts ranked by 24-hour performance flipped from overwhelmingly short to 80% long within 14 hours. At the 08:18 snapshot on October 21, that group carried roughly $962 million in long positions against $247 million in shorts. The evening snapshot on October 20, taken 14 hours earlier, had the same cohort at about $203 million long against $2.978 billion short, a 94% short weighting. Long notional therefore expanded nearly fivefold inside one trading day, growing by roughly $760 million, while short exposure fell by about $2.73 billion. Underlying prices backed the rotation: over the same 24-hour window, Bitcoin gained 1.3%, Ethereum 1.7%, Solana 1.4% and HYPE 1.5%, with ZEC up 9.1%, WLD up 10.1% and LIT up 9.4%. COINOTAG's live read puts Bitcoin near $83,000 and Ethereum at about $2,448, essentially flat since the latest snapshot. The longer windows moved less. The 7-day group, the top accounts ranked by weekly performance, still sat 83% short, about $632 million long against $3.024 billion short, down from 93% the previous evening: short notional there shrank by roughly $300 million while long notional rose from $241 million to $632 million. The 30-day group kept its posture almost intact, 83% short with $680 million long against $3.306 billion short, marginally below the 87% short reading from the evening count. The aggregate sums the top 100 accounts at each venue, asset by asset, and refreshes on an hourly cycle. Leverage positioning at the top of the book thus shifted hardest where the ranking window is shortest, a mechanical consequence of how these boards compile: each hourly refresh keeps the accounts whose realized results over its window were strongest, so a rising market pushes shorts off the list and longs onto it.

Bitcoin and Ethereum Books Turn

Bitcoin's top-24-hour cohort moved from 98% short to 79% long in one day: 154 long accounts against 56 shorts, with roughly $292 million long and $79 million short. The evening count had 68 long accounts and 154 short ones. Ethereum traced the same path, from 98% short to 77% long, 130 long accounts against 52, about $155 million long and $45 million short. The older windows tell a different story. Among 7-day performers, Bitcoin is still 81% short and Ethereum 90% short; Bitcoin's 7-day notional sits near $200 million long against $873 million short, Ethereum's near $95 million against $868 million. On a 30-day basis the readings are 83% and 86%, and the 30-day Bitcoin cohort's headcount was unchanged from the evening count. Ethereum shorts in both older groups carry about $24 million in unrealized losses each. ZEC recorded the largest single-asset shift in the 7-day group: long accounts rose from 26 to 48 while shorts fell from 89 to 49, lifting the long share by headcount from 23% to 50%. By notional the coin remains 72% short, $75 million long against $193 million short, versus 98% short the evening before. In the 24-hour group ZEC sits 94% long after a 9.1% gain to $1,258, though the 30-day cohort still holds 93% short with $240 million in short notional. WLD turned 95% long among 24-hour performers, from 31% the previous evening. Within the top 20 coins by notional, ADA is the only short-dominant position in the 24-hour group, and XMR the only long-dominant one in the 7-day group. The 7-day group's unrealized result worsened sharply: an aggregate loss of about $90 million, double the roughly $41 million recorded the prior evening, with HYPE shorts down about $46 million and Bitcoin shorts down about $41 million. The 30-day group swung from about $6 million in unrealized profit to roughly $76 million in losses, while the 24-hour cohort sits about $21 million ahead.

The forced side of the flip is now quantified: CoinGlass data shows $279.14 million in liquidations across digital-asset derivatives over the past 24 hours, with short positions accounting for $194.78 million, or 69.8% of the total, against $84.36 million in long liquidations. Some 70,549 traders were wiped out, and 80% of the notional, $224.44 million, came in the last 12 hours, where shorts made up $169.26 million of the flow. Ethereum carried the largest single-asset tally at $92.91 million, 69.1% of it shorts, while Bitcoin's $59.16 million was 82.6% short-side. Altcoin shorts were squeezed too: ZEC saw $14.54 million liquidated with roughly 84% from shorts, Solana $13.02 million with $9.67 million from shorts. The largest single position closed was an $11.96 million BTC short on Binance.

An updated CoinGlass tally taken a few hours later shows the liquidation tape still tilting toward shorts, though the headline figure has come down: over the trailing 24 hours, $222.03 million in leveraged positions across the top 20 coins were closed out, with short liquidations at $170.15 million, or 76.64% of the total, against $51.87 million on the long side, a newer reading compared with the $279.14 million counted earlier in the day. Ethereum remained the largest single asset at $90.42 million, 71% of it shorts, and Bitcoin followed at $66.60 million with an 86% short share. ZEC saw $14.66 million closed, 85% shorts, and Solana $12.94 million, 81% shorts. The underlying market extended the move that drove the rotation: Bitcoin traded at $83,309, up 2.31%, Ethereum at $2,455, up 2.96%, with XRP up 5.10% and ZEC up 12.36%.

A third CoinGlass reading, taken later on Thursday as the session advanced, shows the squeeze accelerating: by 15:50 UTC Bitcoin had pushed back above the earlier $83,309 level, trading above $84,000 and briefly touching $84,739, and the trailing 24-hour liquidation count had risen to $243.04 million, of which $188.14 million, or 77.4%, came from short positions against $54.89 million in longs. Bitcoin alone accounted for $78.42 million, nearly 94% of it short-side, with Ethereum next at $47.99 million and ZEC at roughly $14.8 million. Some 71,223 traders were closed out, and Binance carried about 44% of the total; the largest single position was an $8.74 million Ethereum short there. CoinGlass reported $68.12 million liquidated within one hour and $182.52 million over 12 hours, while Bitcoin traded near $84,376 on Bitstamp by 15:50 UTC after climbing from the $82,200 to $82,600 range against the earlier $83,309 reading.

A fourth CoinGlass reading, taken later on Thursday by 15:50 UTC, shows the short squeeze grinding on even as the headline liquidation count eased: the trailing 24-hour total across the top 20 coins stood at $200.45 million, with short liquidations at $166.86 million, or 82.83% of the flow, roughly 4.8 times the $34.60 million closed on the long side. Bitcoin carried the largest single-asset tally at $86.57 million, 92% of it shorts, followed by Ethereum at $56.34 million, 77% shorts, and ZEC at $16.49 million, 92% shorts. Solana saw $8.03 million closed, 79% from shorts, and XRP $4.12 million, 92% shorts. The underlying market had pushed higher since the earlier $83,309 reading: by this later snapshot, Bitcoin traded at $84,492, up 2.35% over 24 hours, with Ethereum at $2,494, also up 2.35%, ZEC up 11.95%, XRP up 4.63% and HYPE up 2.14%.

83% Short Still Anchors Older Cohorts

Our reading: the 24-hour print is a leaderboard of what just worked, so the distance between the windows, not the flip itself, is the measurement that matters. The 7-day and 30-day cohorts both still hold 83% short, a posture built through the past week's decline, and both remain more than four to one short in notional terms, even after $300 million came off 7-day shorts. The 24-hour group's profits sit beside a $90 million unrealized loss among 7-day performers and a $76 million swing to losses among 30-day accounts, so the newest winners are long while the entrenched short cohorts bleed. Caveats bind: a few large positions can move the totals, hedges are invisible, spot holdings are excluded, and only four venues are counted.