Short sellers lost $3 billion in sixty minutes on August 20, the seventh largest liquidation event. Total liquidations reached $3.5 billion, with shorts bearing the brunt.
Short sellers lost $3 billion in just sixty minutes on August 20, the seventh largest single-day liquidation event in crypto history, according to CoinGlass data. The total stood at $3.5 billion in leveraged positions wiped out over 24 hours. Long positions accounted for only $264 million in liquidations over the same period, a fraction of the short-side carnage.
Bitcoin rose 8% to reclaim $71,300, a level not seen since the beginning of June. Ethereum jumped nearly 20% on the day, with about $1.16 billion in liquidations. The total crypto market capitalization added roughly $280 billion, or about $12 billion per hour over the full session.
Binance recorded $518 million in liquidations. Hyperliquid followed closely with $513 million, and Bybit ranked third at $303 million. The near-match between Binance and Hyperliquid shows how much leveraged trading activity has shifted toward decentralized perpetual futures platforms over the past year, according to CoinGlass data.
The event reversed a pattern that had defined much of 2026. Earlier liquidation waves punished long traders: in June, two separate events erased $1.8 billion and $1.76 billion, with bullish positions taking most of the losses. This time, short positions had been building for weeks as Bitcoin traded sideways in a narrow range. When the price broke higher, forced buying of short positions accelerated the rally, creating a feedback loop that intensified the squeeze.
Crypto equities also moved higher. Strategy (MSTR) rose nearly 12% in pre-market trading after the close of regular hours. Coinbase (COIN) added 6%. Both stocks carry low Alpha Scores–MSTR at 26 and COIN at 30, both in Weak territory–but the sector-wide rally provided a lift.
The $3.5 billion in total liquidations places the event among the largest in crypto history, surpassed only by the November 2021 squeeze and a handful of other episodes. The concentration of short-side losses suggests that the market had become heavily one-sided after weeks of consolidation, and the breakout caught most of those positions on the wrong side.
Prepared with AlphaScala editorial tooling from the source reporting linked above. Indexable analysis may include a cited Alpha Score value. Publishing checks screen each story before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.