Crypto Liquidation: What It Is, Why It Happens, and How to Avoid It

When you trade crypto with leverage, borrowing funds to amplify your position size, you’re playing with fire. One sudden price drop can trigger a crypto liquidation, the forced closing of your trade because your account can’t cover losses. It’s not a bug—it’s a feature of margin trading. And if you’re using leverage, you’ve already walked into the danger zone. Liquidation isn’t rare. In 2022 alone, over $100 billion in crypto positions were wiped out in a single month. Most of those traders didn’t lose because they were wrong—they lost because they didn’t understand how close they were to the edge.

The liquidation price, the exact market level that triggers your position to be closed automatically isn’t something you can ignore. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a hard stop. If you open a 10x leveraged long on Bitcoin at $60,000, your liquidation price might be $54,000. That’s only a 10% drop. One bad news tweet, one large sell order, one exchange outage—and you’re gone. Many traders think they have room to breathe. They don’t. The market doesn’t care about your entry point. It only cares about your collateral and the price. And when the price hits your liquidation level, the exchange doesn’t ask. It just sells. No warning. No second chance.

This is why margin trading, the practice of borrowing funds to increase exposure in crypto markets is so dangerous for beginners. You see big returns in hype videos. You don’t see the thousands of accounts that got erased. You don’t see the traders who lost everything because they used 20x leverage on a meme coin. You don’t see the ones who held through a dip, thinking they’d bounce back—only to get liquidated because their stop-loss was too far away. The truth? Most people who use leverage don’t survive long-term. Not because they’re bad at trading. Because they don’t manage risk.

There’s a difference between being bold and being reckless. You can trade crypto without leverage and still make money. You can use stop-losses, reduce position size, and avoid over-leveraging. You can even use tools like insurance funds or cross-margin to add a buffer. But if you don’t know your liquidation price, you’re gambling. And in crypto, gambling doesn’t pay. It just empties wallets.

Below, you’ll find real reviews and deep dives into platforms and strategies that either expose you to liquidation risk—or help you avoid it. From decentralized exchanges with hidden margin traps to exchanges that lock your leverage at safe levels, you’ll see what actually works. No fluff. No hype. Just what happens when the market turns, and how to make sure you’re still standing when it does.