Morning Crypto Report: $74.68 Million XRP Bull Makes Brutal Mistake, Bitcoin Briefly Hits $0 On Decentralized Exchange, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Delivers 5,407,865% Liquidation Shock: What Happened?

On Tuesday, Jan. 20, the crypto market is melting under macro heat, as following all the “tariff war” and Greenland context, the Nasdaq 100 crashes -1.6%, the Dow flirts with a -700pt slide and gold, in the meantime, rips through $4,700 for the first time ever. 

In crypto, this carnage is represented by high-leverage XRP whale misfiring with an eye-watering $14 million loss, Bitcoin hitting $0 on a decentralized futures exchange and SHIB derivatives pulling off one of the most asymmetric liquidation spikes on record.

TL;DR

• “Smart money” makes mistakes too, as a Hyperliquid whale opens a $74.68 million long on XRP right as the price hit a local peak.
• Bitcoin crashes to $0 on Paradex due to a glitch, allegedly liquidating thousands of traders.
• Popular meme coin Shiba Inu (SHIB) prints an abnormal 5,407,865% liquidation imbalance as shorts total just $0.89 in four hours.

XRP bull bets $74.68 million on price rise and fails

One of the biggest visible XRP long positions on Hyperliquid just imploded in real time. The wallet opened a $74,951,852.27 position worth 38,829,121.00 XRP using 10x leverage with an entry at $2.292 — brutally timed to what turned out to be the local top. 

With the current trading price of XRP at $1.9303, the unrealized loss stands at -$14,060,551.57, which is equivalent to -187.59%.

The liquidation price for the position is $1.2694, according to data. With the current rate of drawdown, that level is not just hypothetical anymore. To keep this position, the trader already took on $1,425,965.10 in funding costs, with margin collateral totaling $7,495,185.23. With all the funding pressure and trend decay, the odds are brutal. 

This loss alone is almost 73% of the total daily Hyperliquid PnL drawdown, which hit -$19.2 million across all long positions. The second-worst performing long from the same portfolio is ETH, down -$4.81 million at 15x leverage, while a smaller HYPE position lost -$440,000.

For XRP, it looks like it is in a descending volatility compression, with support at $1.66 and key resistance at $2.05. If the 20-day EMA does not hold near $1.89, the whole bull structure might be invalidated.

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$0 Bitcoin price glitch goes viral

Things got a little crazy on Jan. 19 when the decentralized futures platform, Paradex, had a glitch in its data backend. This caused BTC to temporarily register a price of $0.

Paradex staff put a stop to some services and managed to restore order within seven hours, but thousands of users were still affected. 

Any positions that were executed during the crash — especially those using perpetual orders — were processed according to the protocol, which meant that client losses were final. A rollback snapshot was deployed, but it only protected spot states, not leveraged contracts.

Before it went under, there was a trading volume of $2.8 billion. By Jan. 20, Paradex’s open interest had gone up from the previous week, which makes it seem like users are either betting on platform compensation or just ignoring the risks. 

It is probably because of the zero-fee operations that keep making the platform appealing, even though the system is a bit shaky.

Outside the platform, the market did not seem too bothered by the glitch. BTC/USD across centralized exchanges stayed in the $90,800-$91,300 range. 

Shiba Inu (SHIB) derivatives market stunned by 5,407,865% liquidation imbalance

Shiba Inu long futures just had a liquidation ratio that is hard to believe: $48,126.83 liquidated on the long side, versus just $0.89 short, as per CoinGlass. This 5,407,865% imbalance happened over a four-hour period as SHIB broke below a key support level at $0.000008. 

The trigger zone lined up with a previous support level at $0.00000786, breaking the neckline of the local range low. The drop went through a bunch of margin stop clusters on leverage exchanges.

SHIB’s daily chart shows that it has been dropping consistently since it hit the $0.0000090 rejection zone. The next big support level is at $0.00000699, which is the October swing low. There, limit orders could stack up again.

The scale of long-side liquidations with virtually no short-side counterflow highlights how asymmetrical SHIB’s derivatives market has become. Most of the participants are still net long, which creates a dangerous pattern on any dip.

Even with all the drama, the total notional liquidated is actually pretty small in dollar terms, but the imbalance ratio is now one of the highest ever registered on an hourly basis for a top 30 coin.

Crypto market outlook

The overall situation for the crypto market is hostile. Right now, the most popular options on Deribit are for Bitcoin put options between $75,000 and $80,000. The cryptocurrency is holding above $91,000, but there is increasing bearish pressure. The Fear & Greed Index dropped 12 points to 32, which is the lowest it has been since mid-October. 

On-chain data shows holders have sold at a loss for 30 days in a row — something we have not seen since Q4, 2023. But institutions and whales are buying into that weakness: over 577,000 BTC added in the last 12 months, valued at around $53 billion.

Key levels to watch:

• XRP: $1.89 is midband support, $2.05 is breakout trigger, but $1.66 remains an untouched liquidation cluster.
• Shiba Inu (SHIB): Keep an eye on $0.00000786 for short-term defense, and $0.00000699 for absolute support.
• Bitcoin (BTC): Demand zone is between $88,500 and $91,000, but options traders want blood at 80,000.

Risk is asymmetric across the board. Gold is leading as a macro hedge, Bitcoin is fighting for narrative support and altcoins are the ultimate “scapegoat” being punished across leverage markets.

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