A trader running a heavily leveraged short position against Bitcoin has been forced to keep trimming the trade to avoid liquidation, closing another 500 BTC — worth roughly $32.58 million — according to on-chain tracker Lookonchain. The move brings the trader's total realized loss on the position past $1.5 million. What remains is a 900 BTC short worth about $58.6 million, with a new liquidation price of $64,998.73.
The position originally stood at 1,600 BTC short before this round of trimming, meaning the trader has now closed roughly 44% of the original bet in stages to keep the position alive rather than let it be forcibly liquidated. Each reduction locks in a portion of the loss but also lowers the position's liquidation price, buying the trader more room before Bitcoin's rally would wipe out what remains.
Squeezed by Bitcoin's rebound
The short-seller's predicament lines up directly with Bitcoin's price action over the same stretch — the token climbed back above $65,000 on August 7 after a weak US jobs report reduced expectations for a near-term Federal Reserve rate hike, a move that would have pushed a large short position uncomfortably close to its liquidation threshold. With the new liquidation price sitting at $64,998.73, the remaining 900 BTC short is now positioned almost exactly at Bitcoin's current trading level, meaning even a modest further move higher could force the position to unwind entirely.
A visible whale under pressure
Large, identifiable short positions like this one have become one of the more closely watched storylines in on-chain analysis, since forced deleveraging by big leveraged traders can itself add momentum to a rally — as shorts are liquidated, exchanges automatically buy back the position, adding upward pressure to price in a self-reinforcing loop. Whether this particular trader manages to trim the position down further or gets caught by a continued Bitcoin rally will be a story worth watching in the days ahead, particularly given how tightly the current liquidation price now tracks spot price.
Related: XRP Longs Wiped Out at 29:1 Ratio as $9.6M in Bets Liquidated
