Analytics · Derivatives
Liquidation Heatmap, explained
An estimate of the price levels where leveraged futures would be force-closed — why the bright bands form, why they fade after price trades through them, and why this is not a record of liquidations that already happened.
- Source
- CoinGlass
- Assets covered
- 3
- Windows
- 12h – 1M
- Shows
- Estimated density
futures price and aggregated open interest
BTC, ETH, SOL
from short-term detail to a monthly field
likely zones, not recorded closes
What the heatmap shows
Every leveraged trade has a liquidation price: the level where the exchange force-closes it. This chart estimates those levels and stacks them by price. The result is a field of bands. A thin blue band is a light cluster. A bright red band is a heavy one. The white line is the price over the window you picked.
The chart covers Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana, on windows from 12h to 1M.
How the estimate is built
The numbers come from CoinGlass futures data: price, and how much aggregated open interest changed. When open interest rises, the model treats that increase as new leverage opened around the price of that moment. It then asks where those positions would be force-closed if they were using common leverage, from 10x to 100x, with more of the weight on the lower tiers. Longs are projected below the price. Shorts are projected above it.
Once price trades through a level, most of that estimated leverage is treated as cleared. A small remainder is left behind, which is why a swept area goes dark rather than disappearing in a hard line. Nothing here is a list of real orders. Exchanges do not publish each trader’s liquidation price, so the bands are a model of where leverage of that size would sit.
How to read the bands
Compare bands with each other, not with a dollar figure. A wall matters because it is brighter than the bands around it. Clusters like that have tended to pull price toward them, because reaching them releases a burst of forced buying or selling. They can also act as short-term support or resistance, where larger participants trade against the concentrated leverage. Those are tendencies, not promises.
A band brightens while leverage builds at that price and fades after price trades through it. The dark channel that follows the price line is the region already swept. Read the brightest zone as an area of interest. The heatmap estimates where liquidations may begin, not the price where they stop.
These are estimated levels, not observed positions
The exchange does not publish each trader’s liquidation price. The chart infers likely zones from price and the change in open interest, then projects them across a few common leverage tiers. A bright band is a model, not a list of real orders.
Brightness is relative, not a dollar amount
A band only means something next to the other bands on the same screen. The chart does not tell you how many dollars would be liquidated at that price.
It is not the Liquidations chart
Liquidations shows dollar totals of positions that were already force-closed, long against short. This heatmap looks forward: where the next cluster of leverage may sit. One records the flush. The other estimates where a flush could start.
A band is where liquidations may begin, not where they stop
Price is often drawn toward a heavy cluster, because reaching it releases forced buying or selling. That is a tendency, not a target. The brightest zone is an area of interest, not a precise level to trade against.
A bright band is a pile of estimated leverage. It is not a price the market owes you.
Where it fits
This is a positioning chart, not a valuation chart. It says nothing about whether an asset is cheap. It says where borrowed futures exposure may be forced out if price gets there. The companion chart, Liquidations, is the record of closes that already happened: long totals against short totals. Use the heatmap for the levels still ahead, and Liquidations for the flush that already printed.
It is not one of the inputs behind the Bitcoin or Ethereum Heatmeter, and it has no 0–100 score of its own. Open interest and funding sit next to it as the other reads on how much leverage is in the market and which way that leverage is leaning.
Common questions
What does the Liquidation Heatmap show?
Estimated price levels where leveraged futures positions would be force-closed, mapped across price and time. Brighter bands hold a larger cluster of that estimated leverage. Darker areas hold little. The white line is the price over the window you selected.
Is this a record of liquidations that already happened?
No. The Liquidations chart is the record: dollar totals of longs and shorts that exchanges already force-closed. The heatmap estimates where positions would be closed if price reached those levels. It is built from CoinGlass futures price and aggregated open interest, not from a feed of completed liquidations.
Which coins and time windows does it cover?
Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. The selectable heatmap window runs from 12 hours to one month.
How are the bands calculated?
When open interest rises, the model treats that increase as freshly opened leverage at the price of that moment. It then projects where those positions would be force-closed across leverage tiers from 10x to 100x, weighted toward the lower tiers. Longs land below the price, shorts above it. Once price trades through a level, most of that estimated leverage is treated as cleared.
Why do some bands fade?
A band brightens while leverage is building at that price and fades after price trades through it. The dark channel that follows the price line is the region already swept. What remains is the leverage the model still considers open.
Is the Liquidation Heatmap part of the Bitcoin or Ethereum Heatmeter?
No. Neither Heatmeter composite uses it as an input. It is a standalone analytics chart. It also carries no 0–100 score of its own.
Related guides
Others in market structure — How much borrowed money is in the market, which way bets are leaning, and where money is moving.
- Altcoin Season IndexCoinGlass’s published 0–100 rotation index, with 80 and above marking Altcoin Season and 20 and below Bitcoin Season.
- Altcoin Strength IndexA weekly 0–100 score for altcoins against Bitcoin, where 0 means historically cheap and 100 historically expensive.
- Altseason Fair Value BandThe altcoin market measured against Bitcoin, held against its long-run average, with the lines where the 2018 and 2021 altseasons peaked and the 2020 altwinter bottomed and the 2026 one came close.
- Gaussian Channel Trend ZonesWeekly Bitcoin through a very smooth Gaussian filter: the zones where the filter falls, what happened around them in earlier cycles, and a 0–100 risk level.
- Bull Market ProgressHow far roughly thirty cycle-peak indicators have travelled toward their historical top readings.
Every indicator we track — the full glossary.
See the live bands, not the schematic
Everything above is how the estimate is built. On the live Liquidation Heatmap you get the density field for Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana, a window from 12 hours to one month, and the price line drawn through the bands.