Crypto long positions took a beating on Aug. 23 as CoinGlass reported $101.39 million in long liquidations over four hours, accounting for nearly 86% of the $118.13 million total in that window. Bitcoin slid about 1.8% from its earlier push toward $80,000, trading near $76,088, then recovered slightly to around $77,300 after the flush.
The long flush
Over 24 hours, long liquidations reached $250.57 million out of $339.73 million in total crypto liquidations. Bitcoin alone accounted for $38.66 million of the four-hour longs and $55.82 million across the day. Aggregate Bitcoin futures open interest fell to $54.54 billion, down 2.65% in 24 hours, a sign that leverage was being unwound rather than rebuilt.
Binance's share
Binance handled $65.02 million of all crypto liquidations in the four-hour window, including $58.64 million in long positions. The single largest liquidation order over the day was an $11.72 million ETHUSDT trade on the exchange.
Positioning after the squeeze
Major perpetual funding rates were near the 0.01% baseline, and the aggregate account long-short ratio sat at 0.9238, showing traders weren't loading up on either side. That's a sharp contrast with earlier in the week, when short liquidations were heavy — though the exact totals differ by source. CoinGlass reported $3.07 billion in crypto shorts liquidated on Aug. 20, while CryptoSlate and the Associated Press cited figures above $4 billion.
What the ETF channel shows
US spot Bitcoin ETFs logged five consecutive days of inflows through Friday, including $307.5 million on Aug. 21, before the weekend halt. With the long flush reducing open interest, Monday's reopening of the ETF channel will be the next test of whether spot demand can absorb the leverage that just got wiped out.
