Bitfinex Price Spike Sends Bitcoin Futures to $153,960 Amid Forced Liquidations

A sudden surge in volatility on Bitfinex led to a sharp price distortion on the $BTC-PERP perpetual futures pair, causing the price to briefly skyrocket to $153,960.

The anomaly was caused by a liquidity shortage on the exchange and was isolated to the specific contract. The BFX composite spot price index remained stable during the incident, confirming that similar movements did not occur in the spot market.

Experts suggest that a massive cascade of forced liquidations triggered the vertical spike. Over the past 24 hours, over 117,116 traders were liquidated across the market, with losses totaling $688.07 million.

The majority of these losses came from short positions, which accounted for $598.27 million. Bitcoin alone saw $354.93 million in liquidations, of which $338.15 million came from short positions.