Liquidations wipe $541M as Deribit expiry pins Bitcoin at $70,000

Deribit’s March options expiry pinned Bitcoin near $70,000 “max pain.” Liquidations hit $541M in 24 hours, mostly longs.

Price sat in a tight $69k–$71k band into settlement. The expiry covered 24,838 contracts with $1.72B notional, landing exactly at the $70,000 strike. The drift to “max pain” aligns with market maker dynamics explained in this max pain guide. Bitcoin slipped about 1.4% from midnight Thursday.

- 141,810 traders were liquidated over 24 hours
- Total losses hit $541M
- Longs lost $443M, about 80%
- Shorts lost $97M

By asset, BTC led with $191M in liquidations. ETH followed with $165M. The largest single loss was an $18M ETH/USDT position on the Aster exchange.

Time buckets show the squeeze building. One hour showed $18M in liquidations. Four hours jumped to $126M. Twelve hours reached $300M, mostly leveraged buyers.

Industry futures open interest fell 5.6% to about $107B. Ether futures dropped 9% alongside a 6% spot decline. That points to capital exiting, not just price drift.

Funding flipped negative across Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and BNB. Shorts regained demand into the expiry window.