Liquidation heatmap or real liquidations
A liquidation heatmap is built from open interest and assumptions about traders' leverage and entry prices. It shows zones where ETH liquidations would cluster if those assumptions hold, not real positions or orders. It is often confused with a liquidity heatmap, which plots limit orders that really are resting on the book.
Markov doesn't draw projected liquidation levels. Its ETH chart shows the measured liquidity heatmap under the candles and the liquidations that happened on top, each with the venue that reported it.
What Markov's ETH liquidations show
Each mark is a position on the Ether perpetual that the exchange closed for its owner. A long liquidation is a forced sell, a short liquidation is a forced buy, so a cluster of them can push price further in the direction it was already going. On Markov's chart, long liquidations sit below the bar and short liquidations above it, sized by their dollar value. Bars where ETH liquidations add up to $100k or more get a label.
Ether's perps are usually second only to Bitcoin's in open interest. It is one of the two coins, with BTC, where Markov also models options dealer gamma, because Derive, the options venue Markov reads, lists options for BTC and ETH only.
Where Markov's ETH liquidations come from
Live in your browser, Markov reads Binance's USDⓈ-M forceOrder stream for ETHUSDT, Bybit's linear allLiquidation stream for ETHUSDT and OKX's liquidation-orders channel for ETH-USDT-SWAP. Binance sends at most one liquidation per symbol per second, so any Binance total is a floor, not a full count. Binance and Bybit refuse connections from some networks, including the US. OKX is usually reachable there, and the panel says which venues are live.
For recorded history, Markov's collector keeps Binance, Bybit and OKX liquidations of $10k and more, so paid plans see up to 30 days of them on 1h and 4h charts. The free chart builds from the moment it opens. Any stretch the collector did not record is marked "not recorded", never filled in.
How to read it
A burst of long liquidations into a level says leveraged longs were flushed there, and a burst of shorts says the opposite. It tells you where forced flow already hit, which is context for the next test of that level. It does not tell you where ETH goes next, and Markov never turns it into a buy or sell call.
Defined in the glossary: liquidation, liquidation heatmap. The methodology says how every number is made, with its limits. Markov provides research tools and education, not financial advice.