Crypto Market Suffers 7th Largest Liquidation Event in History

A massive liquidation event in the crypto market on August 20 led to the loss of $3.5 billion in leveraged positions over a 24-hour period, making it the 7th largest such event in history.

The market saw an astonishing $1 billion in short positions liquidated within just sixty minutes, eventually reaching $3 billion. In contrast, only $264 million in long positions were liquidated during this time, according to CoinGlass data from August 21.

BTC rose 8% to reclaim the $71,300 level not seen since June 1, while Ethereum (ETH) surged by nearly 20%. The total crypto market capitalization gained around $280 billion in just one day. Bitcoin's price increase triggered a feedback loop that rapidly intensified the squeeze on short positions.

The decentralized perpetual futures platform Hyperliquid recorded approximately $518 million in liquidations, closely followed by Binance with roughly $513 million and Bybit at around $303 million.