One pseudonymous trader woke up to a $4.3 million loss on a $70 million Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) short Wednesday as crypto markets posted the largest short liquidation event in recorded history.

What Happened to the $70 Million Short?

Trader Laanie posted on X that they went to bed with a $70 million Bitcoin short open and woke up to friends spam calling them to close their positions. 

Theirr profit and loss swung from $1.6 million up to $3 million down to $4.3 million down in a matter of hours.

“My heart was pounding through my chest, my body went cold, my head was sore and I started throwing up,” they wrote. 

Despite the loss, Laanie kept the position open. “I will ride it down or to death whichever comes first,” they posted.

The $24 Million ETH Short That Got Wiped

A second major loss unfolded on Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH).

On-chain data account Onchain Lens flagged in June that whale wallet pension-usdt.eth had opened a 50,000 ETH short at 3x leverage with an average entry near $1,734, sitting on $1.43 million in profit at the time. 

The trader held the position for nearly two months as ETH gradually climbed, turning the profit into a mounting loss.

When ETH surged from below $1,900 to above $2,200 Wednesday, every $100 move cost the whale roughly $5 million. 

X user Sqalef posted Thursday that the position was liquidated with a net loss of $24 million across the full trade.

Why One Trader Is Still Holding The Short

Trader Mizer posted on X that despite sitting on heavy losses across ETH, Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), and HYPE as measured by Hyperliquid Strategies Inc (NASDAQ:PURR) shorts, but has no plans to close any of them.

His ETH short entered at $1,780 shows a $1.37 million unrealized loss at $2,285, his SOL short entered at $75.40 is down $398,000 at $87.38, and his HYPE short entered at $57.78 is down $611,000 at $73.49.

Mizer argued the rally is not backed by real demand, pointing to a $3 billion short squeeze in an illiquid market, no retail participation, high yields, rising oil prices, and an ongoing war as reasons why the move is unsustainable.

“Nothing about my thesis changed, so there’s no reason for me to close yet,” he wrote.

Why Wednesday Was a Historic Liquidation Event

According to CoinDesk, short sellers lost nearly $2.74 billion in 24 hours as Bitcoin surged above $71,000, the largest forced short closure event in records going back to 2021.

For context, the October 2025 Bitcoin crash produced $2.47 billion in short liquidations on the single biggest crash day in crypto history.

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