Bitcoin (BTC) just delivered a quiet knockout to overleveraged short traders without moving the price much. In just a single hour, short liquidations on BTC surged to $2.47 million, while long liquidations barely surpassed $57,000, as per CoinGlass. That is an imbalance of 4,333%, and it occurred while the spot price remained somewhere around $108,800.

This move caught bears off guard, with no major headline or sudden candle to blame. Instead, it appears to be a good ol' short squeeze.

Someone overstepped, and the market made them pay for it. While BTC’s hourly chart remained calm, the heatmap lit up bright red. Ethereum (ETH) topped total liquidations at $5.09 million, but BTC's short wipeout stood out due to its significant imbalance.

Widen the vision, and the picture changes. In the last 24 hours, $29 million in BTC longs were liquidated versus $9.4 million in shorts —the opposite of what just happened. That hourly swing may have just been a quick reset and not a full-blown trend change. Nevertheless, it shows how things can change rapidly when leverage is stacked too high on one side.

With BTC holding just below key levels and traders making heavy directional bets, it did not take much to trigger this. There was no big candle or breaking news — just thin air under weak positions.

These kinds of liquidation imbalances can be early signs of bigger moves or just market noise between setups. Either way, today, bears were reminded that even when the chart looks calm, the funding games never really stop.