On May 23, 2026, Bitcoin ended its high-level sideways trading above $75,000, falling throughout the day and breaching this price level, which is widely regarded by the market as a key support and psychological threshold. During the session, the price briefly touched a low of around $74,990–$74,999/USDT, with a 24-hour decline of about 2%–3%. With the loss of support, the contract market saw a rapid expansion of volatility due to a concentrated liquidation, according to Odaily Planet Daily citing Coinglass data. Within one hour of the price breaking through $75,000, the total liquidation across the network reached approximately $378 million, of which about $349 million was long positions and only about $29.12 million was short positions; by asset classification, the liquidation for BTC was approximately $164 million and for ETH about $114 million. The concentration of highly leveraged long positions near this price level faced liquidation, indicating that previous market capital had been heavily biased toward longs. This liquidation was not an isolated incident on a single platform but a network-wide deleveraging event triggered simultaneously by several mainstream contract exchanges such as OKX, HTX, and Bitget. This article will focus on this critical moment, combining three data lines: price path, leverage level, and liquidation rhythm, to analyze how leverage and forced liquidations amplified the drop in this round of correction, and based on this, assess the current vulnerability of the market structure.

Breaking $75,000: Price Transition from Mild Correction to Liquidation

Prior to May 23, Bitcoin had long oscillated around the $75,000 mark, with the market consensus forming $75,000 as the "lower bound of the long-term trading range" and a key psychological threshold. On the day of the 23rd, the price continued its correction from the highs, falling throughout the session and gradually approaching this support area, with a 24-hour decline of roughly 2%–3%, superficially still within a normal adjustment for high prices. The true turning point occurred when the integer level was breached: the price slid from above $75,000, momentarily touching around $74,990–$74,999, and the technical breach instantly transformed from "a single red candle on the K-line" into a watershed moment in market sentiment.

Because $75,000 was seen as the lower bound of the long-term trading range, a large number of long stop-loss orders and forced liquidation lines in the contract market had already densely accumulated around this area. When the price broke down through this area, these preset stop-loss orders and those triggered by insufficient margin turned into sell and liquidation orders close to the market price, significantly amplifying selling pressure in a short time. Multiple Chinese cryptocurrency media outlets (Odaily Planet Daily, Golden Finance, Deep Wave TechFlow, BlockBeats, PANews, and Foresight News) almost simultaneously pushed "breakdown" alerts when the price fell below $75,000, further strengthening the market signal of this breach. Under the combination of failed technical support and programmatic sell orders, a high-level correction initially of limited scope was escalated into a brief episode of leveraged liquidation.

$378 Million Liquidated in One Hour: Long Positions Instantaneously Reversed at Key Level

According to Odaily Planet Daily citing Coinglass public data, during the critical phase when Bitcoin broke below $75,000, approximately $378 million was liquidated in the entire network contract market over the past hour, of which about $349 million was long positions and only about $29.12 million was short positions. The liquidation amount for long positions topped over 90%, demonstrating that prior leverage was heavily one-sided, with capital clearly leaning toward bullish bets at this critical price level. The same data source indicated that during this hour, BTC saw about $164 million liquidated and ETH about $114 million, together accounting for a large portion of the total liquidations, highlighting that leveraged capital was primarily concentrated in these two major assets. Once prices turned, deleveraging quickly manifested in these instruments first.

From an execution standpoint, this round of liquidation was not an incident on a single platform but a network-wide clearing triggered simultaneously by major contract exchanges like OKX, HTX, and Bitget. When Bitcoin fell below $75,000 and a large number of long positions had insufficient margin, the risk control systems of various platforms initiated their liquidation procedures, rapidly dumping high-leverage long positions close to the market price. Contract liquidations are typically executed at market price or near it; the concentrated appearance of strong sell orders within a short time would add to the existing active selling pressure, forming a chain reaction of "price drop—insufficient margin—passive selling—further price drop,” leading a high-level correction of originally 2%–3% to develop into a medium-high intensity short-term deleveraging event. This wave of leveraged liquidations concentratedly triggered after the breach of key support became one of the most amplifying technical factors in Bitcoin's current correction.

From Bitcoin to Ethereum: Leverage Liquidation Spreads Across the Market

As Bitcoin fell below $75,000 and triggered $378 million in total liquidations across the network during the same time window, the leverage risk did not remain confined to a single asset. According to Odaily Planet Daily citing Coinglass data, BTC saw about $164 million liquidated, and ETH faced approximately $114 million, with the two accounting for the vast majority of the total. Ethereum's liquidation nearing Bitcoin's scale in a short time meant that capital was not only "cleared out" at a single point in BTC, but rather that deleveraging spread uniformly across mainstream assets, catching the long positions of various mainstream altcoins in the process.

The transmission pathway stemmed in part from the high linkages at the capital level: in the crypto market, BTC is generally regarded as a "risk barometer," with many leveraged accounts holding both BTC and ETH. When Bitcoin broke through its key support and margin was eroded, risk controls and manual reductions tended to simultaneously cover top assets like Ethereum, leading to a combined, cross-asset liquidation. On the other hand, the resonance amplification on the emotional level played a role; on May 23, 2026, several Chinese cryptocurrency media websites almost simultaneously released news of "Bitcoin breaking below $75,000," with rapid price declines and concentrated news releases significantly strengthening market participants' perception of risk events, leading to increased discussion on social platforms and quickly elevating short-term sentiment to bearish. In this environment, both programmatic strategies and manual trades inclined towards reducing positions or opening shorts, amplifying the contract market's momentum, transforming an initially technical shock stemming from a single price breach in Bitcoin into a widespread deleveraging across BTC and ETH.

After the Leveraged Feast: The Fragile Bottom Cards of Long Positions are Quickly Exposed

In the context of long-term oscillation around the $75,000 mark, a great number of contract long positions treated this level as a "safety cushion," with leveraged positions and stop-loss lines densely stacked above and near $75,000. Once the support level was breached, the triggering conditions hanging around this level would all be collectively fulfilled: when the price dipped to around $74,990–$74,999/USDT, the previously dormant stop-loss orders and liquidation lines were consecutively ignited, revealing the highly homogenous structural problems of long positions at key points as a chain liquidation risk.

From the execution mechanism perspective, contract accounts first experience expanded unrealized losses and increasing margin occupancy during a price pullback. When the margin rate falls below the platform's risk control threshold, the risk engine will take over positions directly and forcibly liquidate at or near market prices. This means that longs, who previously only had paper losses, are turned into real market sell orders within minutes, significantly increasing downward trading volumes and accelerating the price's downward "crush." According to Odaily citing Coinglass data, within the key time window of one hour, $378 million was liquidated across the network, of which long positions accounted for about $349 million, with BTC and ETH each liquidating approximately $164 million and $114 million, respectively. The amount liquidated for longs vastly surpassed that for shorts, clearly reflecting the previous direction of leverage being heavily bullish. Compared to past cycles where daily deleveraging could reach billions, the $378 million liquidation in one hour constitutes a medium-high intensity event rather than an extreme value, but it is sufficient to form a significant "reshuffle" beneath key price levels, indicating that the high leverage long positions around critical support are extremely vulnerable to short-term fluctuations, and any misjudgment in direction makes it more likely to lead them to exit the market passively.

Short-term Volatility Upgrade: Next, Focus on Price and Leverage Lines

What brought Bitcoin down from the upper bound of the long-term oscillation range is not the nominal decline of 2%–3%, but rather the approximate $378 million liquidation detonated within an hour after breaching the critical support of $75,000, with about $349 million from long positions, and BTC and ETH together accounting for the main leverage pool. This indicates that the high-leverage longs have been concentratedly liquidated, unveiling the market's vulnerability to short-term shocks. Currently, the price remains in contention near $75,000; the next main line is to observe whether Bitcoin can regain and effectively stabilize above $75,000. Additionally, whether each time it retests this area there is a noticeable dampening in trading volumes and sentiment. If it lingers below this level for a long time, the market's psychological perception of this threshold will reverse. The other main line is leverage: unfinished contract volume, funding rates, and time-segment liquidation amounts can be continuously tracked through public data like Coinglass. If these indicators continue to recede in the coming trading sessions, it denotes ongoing deleveraging; conversely, if unfinished positions and liquidation volumes expand again, it signifies a new round of leverage accumulation and secondary liquidation risks. For individual traders, historical experience has repeatedly demonstrated that high leverage combined with key price levels is often a high-frequency area for concentrated liquidations. Near critical thresholds like $75,000, moderating leverage multiples, diversifying entry and stop-loss price ranges is a common practice to control the probability of passive liquidations. Whether short-term stability can be maintained at $75,000 and whether leverage can continue to decline will directly determine whether this round of correction concludes or evolves into a deeper adjustment.

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