What is a liquidation heatmap?

A liquidation heatmap visualizes the price levels where leveraged positions would be force-closed if price reached them. Brighter clusters indicate more stacked leverage — 'magnet zones' that price often gravitates toward during volatile sessions.

What is a liquidation cascade?

A cascade is when one liquidation pushes price further and triggers the next — amplifying into a 5–20% wick in minutes. Cascades often mark local extremes as forced selling exhausts, producing reversal setups.

How do I use liquidation data?

Scan for clusters near current price — they're likely short-term targets. Watch for regime flips (long-dominant to short-dominant) as sentiment confirmation. Pair with open interest to distinguish forced flow from voluntary unwinds.

Liquidations — Crypto Futures Analytics

What is Liquidations?

A liquidation is the forced closure of a leveraged position when margin falls below the exchange's maintenance threshold. Long liquidations occur during sharp price drops; short liquidations occur during sharp rallies. Cascading liquidation clusters — where one liquidation pushes price further and triggers the next — produce the 5–20% wicks that define crypto volatility. Sharpe tracks live long and short liquidation volumes across 13 exchanges with price overlay and cluster detection. Liquidation heatmaps show where the most leverage is stacked, which often acts as a magnet during volatile sessions.

How to use Liquidations

Watch liquidations for three signals. First, cluster formation: a sudden spike in long liquidations often marks local lows after forced selling exhausts. Second, magnet zones: price tends to gravitate toward heavy liquidation clusters during high-volatility sessions as dealers and arbitrageurs hunt stops. Third, regime changes: a shift from long-dominant to short-dominant liquidations (or vice versa) signals a market flip typically confirmed within days.