Crypto liquidations Bitcoin drop: $657m wiped out in 24 hours as longs

A brutal wave of crypto liquidations Bitcoin drop pressure ripped through the market over the past 24 hours, wiping out more than $657 million in positions as traders rushed to de-risk. The selling was heavily concentrated in bullish bets, and that showed how quickly momentum can snap when leveraged traders get caught on the wrong side of a move.

What made this selloff stand out was how one-sided it became. According to Coinglass, 106,371 accounts were liquidated in a single day, while long positions alone accounted for $584 million of the damage. Short positions lost just $73 million.

That imbalance tells the story. Crypto had been leaning bullish, especially after a strong run of Bitcoin ETF inflows, but a failed breakout in Bitcoin and a fresh jolt of geopolitical anxiety turned that optimism into a cascade.

Crypto liquidations hit the market hard

The headline number was steep: more than $657 million in crypto liquidations in 24 hours. For traders using leverage, the losses piled up fast.

Coinglass data showed 106,371 accounts were liquidated in a single day. Most of the pain hit long traders, with $584 million in bullish positions erased. As a result, the move looked less like a balanced unwind and more like a sharp washout of traders who had expected prices to keep climbing.

In one hour alone, $526 million in positions were closed out, underscoring how quickly liquidations can compound once key price levels break.

Why this matters: liquidation events do more than reflect falling prices. They can accelerate them. When leveraged long positions are forced closed, exchanges sell into weakness, which can deepen the drop and trigger even more liquidations in a chain reaction.

Bitcoin and Ethereum led the losses

Ethereum took the biggest hit among major assets, with $256 million in long liquidations. Bitcoin followed with $180 million in liquidations, meaning the two biggest cryptocurrencies accounted for roughly two-thirds of the day’s total damage.

The largest single liquidation was an ETH/USDT perpetual contract on Bitget worth $28.49 million.

Bitcoin had been pressing against the $79,000 to $80,000 resistance zone but failed to break through. Once it slipped below $77,000, the move appears to have triggered a broad liquidation cascade across exchanges. Bitcoin is now down 5.59% on the week.

Ethereum dropped below $2,120, down nearly 10% over seven days. Solana fell 11.22% over the same period to $84.94.

The wider market also weakened. Total crypto market cap slipped 0.93% to around $2.65 trillion.

Why Bitcoin ETF inflows did not prevent the unwind

Before the pullback, Bitcoin had recorded nine straight days of ETF inflows totaling around $2.12 billion. That steady buying helped support bullish sentiment and likely encouraged leveraged traders to chase the trend higher.

There is an important split here:

• Spot Bitcoin ETF inflows represent real buying from investors who do not use leverage
• Traders who followed that momentum with borrowed positions were far more exposed when prices reversed

That helps explain why the unwind was so severe. Strong ETF demand can create a supportive backdrop, but it does not protect leveraged longs if price momentum stalls at resistance. Once Bitcoin failed to reclaim the $79,000 to $80,000 zone, traders betting on a clean breakout were left exposed.

Trump’s Iran warning added pressure

The crypto liquidations Bitcoin drop story was not just about charts and leverage. The selloff also landed as traders reacted to geopolitical tension after President Donald Trump signaled possible US military strikes on Iran, pushing markets into risk-off mode ahead of the week.

That matters because crypto, despite its reputation for trading on its own cycle, can still react sharply when macro fear takes over. In risk-off conditions, traders often cut exposure to volatile assets first, and leveraged crypto positions are especially vulnerable.

The market slide, then, did not happen in isolation. A failed technical setup in Bitcoin met a sudden shift in broader sentiment, and that combination can be especially punishing for overextended long positions.

What traders are watching now

The near-term focus is shifting to support. Bitcoin fell below $77,000 after failing at resistance, and the support zone now sits between $75,000 and $77,000. For bullish momentum to return, the market would need to reclaim the $79,000 to $80,000 area.

ETF flow data in the coming days will be watched closely. After nine consecutive days of inflows, investors now want to see whether institutional demand keeps showing up even as volatility rises.

That is the next real test in this crypto liquidations Bitcoin drop episode: whether the flush was just a leverage reset, or the start of a more cautious stretch for a market suddenly forced to price in both technical weakness and geopolitical stress.