Bitcoin took a sudden nosedive late Wednesday, briefly touching $61,310 before bouncing back to around $64,600. The move erased $636 million in long positions across crypto derivatives exchanges, marking one of the larger single-day liquidation events of 2026. By Thursday morning the largest cryptocurrency had stabilized just under $64,000, still down 3.2% on the day and 14% for the week.
The flash crash
The drop came in a matter of minutes around 10 p.m. Eastern on June 3. Bitcoin slid roughly 5% from the $64,500 range to $61,310 before recovering nearly as fast. The swift rebound suggests the move was at least partly driven by cascading liquidations of leveraged longs, which forced automated selling that overshot the market. After the bounce, bitcoin traded in a narrow range near $63,900.
Liquidations pile up
Data tracked by major derivatives platforms shows $636 million in long positions were liquidated in the 24-hour period ending Thursday morning. That figure includes positions on Binance, Bybit, and OKX. The scale of the wipeout is the largest since a similar flush in March that sent bitcoin briefly under $60,000. Leverage has been building in the market for weeks, and Wednesday's move appears to have caught many overextended traders off guard.
A brutal week for bitcoin
Wednesday's flash crash only deepened what was already a painful stretch. Bitcoin is down nearly 30% year-to-date in 2026, and the weekly loss of 14% puts it near multi-month lows. The broader market has been under pressure from regulatory uncertainty and a steady drip of negative macro headlines. The speed of Wednesday's drop, and the size of the liquidation cascade, raises questions about how much deeper the sell-off could go if another leg of forced selling hits.
Traders are now watching whether the $61,300 level — the flash crash low — becomes a support zone that holds, or whether it gets retested. A break below that would likely trigger another round of stop-losses and liquidations. The next few sessions will show whether the rebound was a dead-cat bounce or the start of a real stabilization.
