The price of ether (ETH), the Ethereum cryptocurrency, reached a new all-time high (ATH) yesterday, surpassing $4,800 (USD). This triggered a volume of liquidations not seen in the past six months. 

According to Coinglass data, the ETH market saw approximately $284 million in short positions and $80 million in long positions yesterday, totaling $364 million. In other words, the majority of the liquidations affected investors who were betting on a price drop.

The daily chart shows that Friday's ETH sell-off bar was the highest in six months, reflecting the direct impact of the unexpected price surge by bearish traders. 

The red bars represent downward liquidations and the green bars represent upward liquidations per day in ETH positions. Source: Coinglass.

With its rise to a new all-time high, ETH was the crypto asset with the most liquidations on the day. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) liquidations amounted to $67 million in long positions and $34 million in short positions, a small total compared to its typical behavior. 

Bitcoin position liquidations. Source: Coinglass.

This comes as BTC remains in a period of consolidation after reaching an ATH of USD 122,000 last week. Liquidations are automatic position closures when the market moves against an investor's bet and they run out of room to cover losses.  

Bearish moves are triggered when the price rises and those who expected a drop suffer losses, while bullish moves affect those who anticipated a rise and the price falls. This mechanism seeks to limit risks on cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges.

ETH's new record reflects the market's strength and the growing interest of institutional and retail investors. However, these types of movements are often accompanied by volatility, so attention now turns to ETH's next support and resistance levels, as well as the potential reaction of altcoins to this momentum.