Ether futures take $286 million of $483 million bitcoin, ether total

Ether futures accounted for about $286 million of the nearly $483 million in bitcoin and ether futures positions closed in the 24 hours to Oct. 15, CoinDesk reported, citing CoinGlass data checked during Asian morning hours. Bitcoin contracts supplied $197 million of the total.

The split ran against the size of the two futures books. Outstanding ether contracts totaled about $30 billion, against $52 billion for bitcoin, the same CoinGlass figures show. Ether's $286 million in closures works out to roughly 45% more than bitcoin's $197 million, from a market a little over half the size.

For a client holding futures-based or leveraged crypto exposure, the figures measure the value of positions closed rather than cash the trader personally lost, CoinDesk reported. An exchange shuts a position automatically when a price move leaves a borrowed-money bet short of the collateral needed to keep it open. CoinDesk's illustration: $1,000 controlling a $10,000 position can lose its backing on a move of less than 10% against it.

Prices fell through Thursday's session. Ether dropped about 6.4% to $2,356 and bitcoin lost roughly 3.2% to trade around $81,000, CoinDesk reported, tying the selling to uncertainty over the Federal Reserve's next interest-rate decision.

Smaller tokens took smaller hits. Solana futures recorded about $31 million in liquidations as SOL fell roughly 5.5%, and Zcash contracts added nearly $19 million with ZEC down about 13%; XRP and SOL both fell around 5%, and dogecoin dropped roughly 6%. CoinDesk also noted that forced closures can add pressure to a falling market by pushing traders out regardless of whether they wanted to sell at that price. Its headline put total crypto liquidations near $1 billion, a population broader than the bitcoin and ether futures figure.