Bitcoin Shorts Bear Brunt of $1.13B Crypto Liquidation Wave

Leveraged positions across cryptocurrency derivatives were hit with $1.13164 billion in liquidations during the 24 hours leading up to 15:56 KST on Aug. 21, 2026, with short sellers absorbing almost the entire loss. Exchange-aggregated derivatives data shows short-position liquidations reached $995.87 million, or 88.00% of the total, approximately 7.3 times the $135.77 million in long liquidations. Bitcoin (BTC) was the largest single contributor, recording $770.82 million in liquidations, of which $727.98 million came from short trades; in proportional terms, 94% of Bitcoin's liquidation volume was short. That leaves Bitcoin responsible for just over two-thirds of the top-20 aggregate. A liquidation is the automatic closure of a leveraged position by an exchange when margin falls below the maintenance requirement, and a wave of simultaneous closures can amplify the price move that triggered it. The data reflects only the top 20 instruments by liquidation volume on major derivatives venues, not every contract traded across the market, and definitions vary by platform, so other dashboards can show slightly different totals. CoinGlass's table, which is the basis for these figures, compiles the largest per-asset liquidation totals across centralized exchanges; spot prices in the same snapshot were drawn from separate market quotes, so timing differences can produce small discrepancies. At the time the snapshot was recorded, Bitcoin was trading near $75,522, up 8.19% over the same 24-hour window, with Ethereum near $2,370, up 4.72%. The short-heavy composition of the losses points to an upside squeeze rather than a typical deleveraging event: the more sharply prices rallied, the more bearish leveraged accounts were forced to cover, and their buy-to-close orders likely reinforced the upward move. The pressure was not confined to the largest digital asset; it was also visible across the altcoin market. The list includes perpetual swaps, futures and tokenized commodity instruments such as XAU, so the liquidation event was not limited to crypto-native tokens.

Beyond Bitcoin, the same short-heavy pattern held across most of the top-20 list. Ethereum (ETH) saw $210.6 million in liquidations, with 75% of that volume from short positions. Ripple (XRP) followed at $42.62 million with 62% short, Solana (SOL) at $27.51 million with 84% short, Zcash (ZEC) at $14.74 million with 94% short, and Hyperliquid (HYPE) at $12.84 million with 75% short. The only instrument on the list with more long than short liquidations was Sandisk (SNDK), where longs represented 54% of the $10.9 million in forced exits, while tokenized gold (XAU) appeared with $10.2 million in liquidations, 90% short. The distribution suggests bearish positioning was layered across the broader altcoin market, not concentrated solely in the largest digital asset. During the same period, several of the affected altcoin assets were rallying in the spot market: XRP rose 17.40%, Dogecoin (DOGE) gained 10.85%, Solana added 5.13% and Hyperliquid rose 1.12%. Because short liquidations are generally executed as buy orders, the simultaneous unwind likely added to the upside momentum in those names, compounding losses for remaining short sellers. The list also illustrates how leverage was distributed: the largest liquidation totals were in the most actively traded derivatives, but even smaller altcoin tokens with thinner open interest produced enough forced volume to appear on the screen. The figures are a record of position closures, not of new positioning; the same data feed will show whether traders rebuild bearish exposure after the flush. Notably, the short percentage varied by asset, with Bitcoin and Zcash showing the most lopsided readings, which points to market-specific positioning rather than a single macro-driven trade.

Updated derivatives data now shows total liquidations reached approximately $1.5 billion across 178,777 traders in the same 24-hour window, with short positions accounting for roughly $1.21 billion — higher than earlier tallies as the squeeze deepened. Bitcoin touched an intraday high of $79,320 before easing to around $77,137, marking a 23.2% weekly gain. The single largest liquidation order was a $23.59 million BTC position wiped out on Hyperliquid, while Bitcoin alone drove about $17.25 million in liquidations on the one-hour heatmap. The rally unfolded amid a wave of Washington headlines, including President Donald Trump endorsing the crypto market-structure Clarity Act and signaling regulators were working to bring offshore perpetual-futures exchange Hyperliquid onshore.

Fresh data from major exchanges shows $113 million in futures positions were liquidated in the past hour, bringing the 24-hour total to $1.49 billion. The updated figure refines the earlier estimate of approximately $1.5 billion, indicating that forced closures continued during the final stretch of the observed window. The hourly tally underscores that the deleveraging process remained active even after the initial spike in liquidations, with the market still working off leveraged exposure. No long/short breakdown accompanied the latest hourly data, but the sustained volume points to ongoing pressure on leveraged traders as prices remained volatile.

(as of 17:05 UTC) The current upside impulse in BTC, now trading at $77,521.99 with a 6.53% 24-hour gain, has pushed the RSI to 84.90 — a deeply overbought reading that typically precedes a pause or pullback. COINOTAG's proprietary 42-indicator composite S/R engine places the immediate resistance at $78,568.57 (score 78/100, backed by R3, ATR Upper, Fibonacci 0.886, and LVN), with a secondary barrier at $82,048.13 (score 57/100). On the downside, the strongest support sits at $76,859.07 (score 68/100, from Fibonacci 0.786 and a MACD cross), followed by $73,884.38 (score 67/100). The derivatives market shows modest positioning: funding at 0.0064% perp, open interest of $14.74 billion, and a long/short account ratio of 1.09 (52.2% long), while the Fear & Greed Index at 72 signals greed. Given the overbought conditions and the proximity to the key resistance, traders may watch whether BTC can sustain above $76,859; a failure to hold that level could trigger a retest of the $73,884 support, while a break of $78,568 could open the door to $82,048.