Bitcoin Flash Crash Liquidates 250 Million After Rally Stalls

A sharp weekend market reversal triggered over $250 million in long position liquidations on Sunday, August 23, 2026, as Bitcoin dropped from its near-$80,000 peak down to the mid-$76,000 range following a weekly rally.

Data from CoinGlass revealed that $101.39 million in crypto long positions were wiped out in a four-hour window around 07:00 UTC, representing nearly 86% of total derivative liquidations during that timeframe. Over a 24-hour period, total long liquidations reached $250.57 million out of $339.73 million in overall market flush-outs.

Bitcoin accounted for $38.66 million of the four-hour long liquidations and $55.82 million of the 24-hour long total. The asset traded around $76,088 before stabilizing near $77,300, down roughly 1.8% over 24 hours after attempting to break the $80,000 psychological threshold earlier in the week.

The derivative pullback caused aggregate Bitcoin futures open interest to decline 2.65% over 24 hours to $54.54 billion, according to CoinGlass metrics. Meanwhile, major perpetual funding rates remained near the baseline level of 0.01%, indicating that leverage was steadily unwinding rather than building up into overcrowded long positions.

Market volatility extended across major exchanges, with Binance processing $65.02 million of all crypto liquidations over four hours. The largest single liquidation order recorded in 24 hours was an $11.72 million ETHUSDT position on Binance.

Earlier in the week, Bitcoin had gained over 21% driven by strong short squeezes, institutional spot demand, and positive macro developments. Farside Investors recorded five consecutive days of spot Bitcoin ETF inflows through Friday, August 21, including $307.5 million on that day alone.

According to reports from Citi and Bernstein, earlier bullish momentum was supported by increased U.S. Treasury bond buybacks, expectations surrounding the proposed Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act, and new SEC regulatory filings. However, the temporary closing of U.S. spot ETF trading channels over the weekend left leveraged positions vulnerable to sudden leverage flushes.

Analysts note that market focus now shifts to whether the Monday reopening of U.S. spot ETF trading channels will restore spot demand to absorb remaining derivative leverage pressures around key support levels at $75,000 and resistance at $80,000.