Liquidations — Superposed on Price
Liquidation events plotted directly on the BTC price curve. Cluster zones reveal cascading deleveraging events and the price levels that historically triggered the largest forced unwinds.
What is it?
Cross-layer chart simultaneously displaying the BTC USD historical price curve (main line, left Y-axis, log scale recommended on long timeframes) and vertical bars representing daily cumulated long liquidations (red downward, right Y-axis) and short liquidations (green upward, right Y-axis). The superposition enables instantly visualising the historical correlation between liquidation cascades and price movements over an annual window. Vertical markers annotate the main major cascade events (March 2020 COVID crash, May 2021 Elon Musk, November 2022 FTX, August 2024 Yen carry, etc.) with contextual tooltips. Coinalyze /liquidation-history source for liquidated volumes + Trinity Price Intelligence for BTC price, 24h Postgres cache.
How to read
Left Y-axis: BTC USD price with at least three readable intermediate numerical ticks (toggleable log scale for multi-cycle timeframes). Right Y-axis: liquidated daily USD amount, symmetric scale around zero (positive upward for liquidated shorts in green, negative downward for liquidated longs in red). X-axis: daily time, 90d/1y/2y/all timeframes. Institutional reading crosses liquidation peaks with price movements of the same date: a price crash with simultaneous massive long liquidations confirms a directional long liquidation cascade. The joint hover tooltip simultaneously displays date, day BTC price, liquidated USD longs, liquidated USD shorts, and 24h price variation.
Key zones
Typical visual patterns observed over 5 years of market: (1) long cascade + simultaneous price crash — classic pattern of severe bear corrections (March 2020 COVID, 19 May 2021, June 2022 Three Arrows, November 2022 FTX, August 2024 Yen carry); (2) short squeeze + simultaneous bullish breakout — classic pattern of bull breakouts (October 2020 post-MicroStrategy, February 2024 post-spot-ETF, November 2024 post-election); (3) violent bidirectional cascade — typical of extreme stress events where both sides are purged (May 2021 paroxysm with longs AND shorts liquidated alternately); (4) isolated cascade without corresponding price movement — asymmetric de-leveraging indication (single side purged via illiquid order book, price moves little because liquidity absorbs).
What to observe
Informative patterns for Pro traders: (1) divergence between liquidations magnitude and price movement — a 5 B$+ liquidations volume with a < -5% price drop in 24h suggests cascade contained by spot ETF market-makers, configuration historically followed by rapid rebound; (2) long cascade followed 24-48h later by a similar-magnitude short cascade — classic mean-reversion pattern on stress event, local bottom in formation indication; (3) cascade frequency > 500 M$/day in cluster (3+ days over 7) — unstable market regime, wait for stabilisation before taking positions; (4) prolonged absence of > 200 M$ cascades for 30+ days — organic accumulation without excessive leverage, structural bullish configuration. Historical event markers enable instantly visualising which dates correspond to contextualised major cascades.
Historical context
The 5 major historical cascades annotated on the chart: (1) March 2020 COVID crash (1 B$+ long cascade in 24h, BTC price drops -50% in 48h), (2) 19 May 2021 paroxysm (10 B$+ long cascade in 24h, BTC price -30% in 24h after gradual Chinese ban), (3) November 2022 FTX collapse (paroxysmal altcoin cascade, more moderate BTC due to deeper liquidity, price from 20 K$ to 16 K$ in days), (4) August 2024 Yen carry trade unwind (1.5 B$+ BTC longs liquidated in hours on global carry trade unwind trigger, BTC price -15% in hours), (5) April 2025 Trump tariffs day (rapid cascade on geopolitical news, BTC price -8% in hours then recovery). Each cascade leaves a distinct imprint on this curve — reading it in parallel with price history restores the real evolution of market stress events.
Expert notes
This chart is one of the most powerful in the Exchange Intelligence section to understand retrospectively the correlation between cascades and price movements, and to anticipate the impact of an observed ongoing cascade. For exhaustive cross-layer Trinity reading, cross-reference with: (1) TLOI Trinity Liquidation Outlier Index (Layer B percentile rolling annual composite) — statistical quantification of observed intensity vs historical baseline; (2) OI vs Price Overlay (#5) — OI ↑ + Price ↓ divergence typically precedes long cascades by 3-7 days; (3) TYCC Trinity Yield Curve Composite (Macro Intelligence) — yen carry trade or US Treasury volatility context that can precipitate cascades. Note: Coinalyze reports daily aggregated liquidations — intraday granularity (4h or 1h) requires additional backend filtering or direct exchange API consultation.
Common mistakes to avoid
Common mistake: interpreting a liquidation peak as an automatic bullish reading. PARTIALLY TRUE — historically extreme peaks (TLOI > 90 percentile) have marked local troughs in 60-70% of cases, but 30-40% were followed by bearish continuation (insufficient initial capitulation). Always cross-reference with TLOI percentile rank to qualify cascade statistical magnitude. Another trap: comparing cascades between different cycles without normalising. 10 B$ of longs liquidated in May 2021 (market OI ~25 B$) represented 40% of total OI; 10 B$ in a mature market (market OI ~100 B$) represents 10% — very different relative magnitude. Always reason in relative terms. Finally, don't confuse aggregated daily liquidations (this metric) with intraday spike liquidations — a 500 M$ spike in 30 min can be more dramatic than a smooth 1 B$ cumulative over 24h.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/exchange-intelligence/derivatives-liq-superposed-price/history?days=90' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "derivatives-liq-superposed-price",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: pro. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
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Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.