The crypto futures market just had its most brutal week in years. Over $5.7 billion in long positions were liquidated across a seven-day stretch, according to CoinGlass data, as traders who bet on rising prices found themselves on the wrong side of a vicious selloff.

Total leveraged liquidations, including shorts, reached nearly $7 billion. The carnage coincided with roughly $390 billion evaporating from the total crypto market cap, a figure that puts this week in rare and uncomfortable company.

The numbers behind the bloodbath

Long positions accounted for over 80% of total liquidations, meaning the overwhelming majority of pain was felt by traders who were positioned for continued gains.

Bitcoin and Ether both posted their worst weekly performance since the FTX collapse in November 2022. The FTX implosion was an existential crisis for crypto confidence. This week’s drawdown, while different in cause, matched it in the speed and severity of price destruction.

A record 13-day streak of Bitcoin ETF outflows had been draining capital from the market in the lead-up. Those outflows totaled approximately $4.4 billion before the streak finally ended around June 5.

Why this happened and why it keeps happening

Crypto futures markets have a recurring problem. During extended rallies, traders pile into leveraged long positions with increasing conviction. When prices begin to drop, those leveraged positions start hitting liquidation thresholds, which forces automatic selling, which pushes prices lower, which triggers more liquidations.

In October 2025, a tariff-driven shock wiped out over $19 billion in leveraged positions in a single day. This time, the market was softened up by sustained ETF outflows and deteriorating sentiment before a broader selloff accelerated the liquidation cascade.

The ETF outflow streak deserves special attention. Bitcoin spot ETFs were supposed to be the great stabilizer, the bridge between institutional capital and crypto markets. A 13-day consecutive outflow streak of $4.4 billion suggests that institutional appetite can dry up quickly and persistently.

What this means for traders and investors

When 80% of liquidations come from longs, it tells you that bullish sentiment had become dangerously crowded. Traders weren’t just optimistic — they were levered-up optimistic, which is a fundamentally different risk profile.

After the $19 billion wipeout in October 2025, it took only months for leverage ratios to climb back to uncomfortable levels. The ETF outflow dynamic adds a layer of complexity that didn’t exist during previous liquidation events. When ETF investors are selling and futures traders are getting liquidated simultaneously, the downward pressure compounds.

The streak ending around June 5 is a start, but a single day of inflows after nearly two weeks of outflows doesn’t constitute a trend reversal.

The comparison to FTX-era performance is worth sitting with. In 2022, Bitcoin and Ether cratered because a major exchange turned out to be fraudulent. This time, there’s no fraud, no exchange collapse, no single catastrophic failure — just overleveraged traders meeting adverse conditions.