More than half of the liquidations ever recorded on Aave v3, the top DeFi lending market, took place over the past 24 hours amid a violent crypto market crash. On July 5, $253.4 million worth of positions were liquidated on Aave v3, bringing the cumulative value of margin calls executed on the protocol to $428.9 million, according to Blockanalitica. As such, 59% of all recorded Aave v3 liquidations occurred within 24 hours. Wrapped ETH (WETH) accounted for $146.7 million in liquidations on the platform, followed by Wrapped stETH (wstETH) with $68.4 million, and Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) with $24.3 million. The heavy margin calls briefly drove up the interest rates paid by Aave on ETH deposits to roughly 14%, but rates have since dropped back to 2% after digital assets markets posted a modest bounce. Markets tumble The liquidations were driven by a violent sell-off across crypto markets that coincided with bloodshed across major stock markets. Bitcoin is down 13% in 24 hours, whileEthereum plummeted 20%, and Solana dropped 16%. The combined market crashed 13% over the period, dipping below $2 trillion for the first time since February. Meanwhile, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 12.4%, South Korea’s KOSPI sank 8.77%, and Taiwan’s Taiex crashed 8.35%. DeFi margin calls Aave users were not alone in suffering hefty margin calls, with rival DeFi lending protocols also hosting a surge in liquidations. MakerDAO’s Spark Protocol also hosted record liquidations, with $35 million worth of positions wiped out in 24 hours — equating to 80% of total liquidations processed by the platform. Maker’s DAI stablecoin suffered $9.79 million worth of margin calls at the same time. Compound hosted $34.8 million in liquidations, equating to 18.7% of the protocol's lifetime margin calls. WBTC accounted for $22 million worth of seized collateral, followed by WETH with $9.37 million, and Chainlink (LINK) with $2.85 million. According to The Block, Morpho Blue also hosted notable margin calls worth $18.1 million. Lido’s liquid staking token, stETH, notably lost ground against ETH amid the carnage, according to CoinGecko. The price of stETH tumbled from more than 0.999 ETH to a low of $0.983 ETH, but has since reclaimed 0.99 ETH. Analysis posted by Santiment in June suggests heavy liquidations on DeFi protocols may signal that an end to the crypto market capitulation could be near. “Historically, when Aave and Compound liquidations spike… it is followed immediately by market rebounds, due to the immediate forced selling followed by opportunistic buying,” Santiment said. “Bullish traders await these liquidations as a sign that BTC can quickly rebound.” The TVL of the broader DeFi sector was also knocked down to $111.5 billion, its lowest level since February. More than $24 billion was wiped from DeFi protocols in a single day for a 17% drop, according to DeFi Llama.