Crypto liquidations reached over $400 million on Thursday, April 2. While total liquidations stood at $271.18 million on Wednesday, April 1, the figures for this rose to $456.19 million on Thursday.
Of these liquidations, $287 million were long positions and $169 million were short positions. Bitcoins [BTC] The price drop below $66,000 on Thursday likely contributed to the short-term selling in the market.
Bitcoin’s funding rate also fell into negative territory on Thursday, but had risen to +0.0008% at the time of writing. CoinGlass’ liquidation and funding rate data showed that BTC recorded the highest number of liquidations in the past 24 hours, worth $57.17 million.
A brief change in sentiment in mid-March was not enough
According to Crypto analyst Axel Adler Jr, the 30-day moving average of the Bitcoin Positioning Index indicator reached +3.0 on March 17. The indicator measures the aggressiveness of market participants in the derivatives market.
The +3.0 value highlighted bullish positioning, but BTC’s price correction over the past two weeks brought the positioning index back below zero. This indicated more aggressive bearish positioning.
The crypto market is heavily influenced by Bitcoin trends. A return above zero for the Positioning Index’s 30-day moving average would be a positive sign for crypto bulls.
As things stand now, short positioning is still dominant in the market.
Futures liquidations are increasingly dominated by long-term liquidations. The dominance of short liquidations has been absent since October 2025. This once again hinted at the bearish strength in the market.
A reversal of the 30SMA positioning index above zero, combined with the dominance of short liquidations, would signal a bullish regime change.
As things stand, this outcome is unlikely. According to a previous AMBCrypto report, prevailing bearish sentiment could see Bitcoin fall below the low of $65,000. This would drag the crypto market down.
Final summary
- Bearish positioning is widespread in the BTC derivatives market.
- A shift in the positioning index and the dominance of liquidations would be a good sign for buyers.