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Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP Crash as $1.7B Got Liquidated in 24 Hours

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The crypto market just suffered its biggest flash crash since October 2025, wiping out $108 billion in just six minutes. The total market value fell from $2.68 trillion to $2.55 trillion as selling pressure increased. More than $1.71 billion in crypto positions were liquidated, hitting Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins the hardest.

Crypto Rally Halt Turned Into $1.7B Liquidations

According to CoinGlass, 281,846 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, causing around $1.71 billion in total losses. Most of the damage came from long positions, with $574 million wiped out in just four hours as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped sharply.

The liquidation wave also hit crypto derivatives markets hard. Open interest across cryptocurrencies fell by $3.34 billion, or 5.18%, in a short period, leaving total open interest at around $55.60 billion.

The sharp decline shows how quickly leverage was removed from the market.

Over the past four days, more than $4.5 billion in long positions have been liquidated across crypto, making it the seventh largest liquidation event in crypto history.

Bitcoin, ETH and $XRP See Sharp Drops

At first, Bitcoin’s rally from $63,600 to $79,500 triggered around $2.7 billion in short liquidations. However, the trend reversed on August 22, putting heavily leveraged long positions under pressure.

Bitcoin fell to around $76,500 within six minutes, while long positions worth about $257.77 million were liquidated.

Ethereum also faced heavy selling, recording around $293.34 million in liquidations as its price dropped to about $2,426.

$XRP saw the sharpest price decline among the three, falling about 12% from $1.70 to $1.51. The move led to around $121.71 million in $XRP liquidations.

Altcoins Lose $53 Billion in Minutes

It’s not just Bitcoin or Ethereum, altcoins also saw massive liquidations. The TOTAL3 market cap, which tracks crypto excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, fell from $784 billion to $731 billion in a single candle.

That means around $53 billion was wiped out in just minutes, a decline of about 6.7%. Bitcoin, meanwhile, fell roughly 2.5% during the same move.

$70,500 Becomes Bitcoin’s Key Support

Despite the recent drop, crypto analyst The Martini Guy believes Bitcoin’s overall uptrend is still intact. He pointed to $70,500 as the key support level after $BTC moved from weeks of trading near $65,000 to breaking above $67,200 and then $70,500.

Bitcoin has pulled back slightly after breaking through $78K, but the bigger picture remains very strong.

We spent weeks trading between $63K and $65K.

Then $67.2K broke.

Then $70.5K broke.

Now we're sitting around $77.5K.

The level I'm watching most closely now is $70,500.… pic.twitter.com/169FraFB2Q

— That Martini Guy ₿ (@MartiniGuyYT) August 22, 2026

Bitcoin’s recent high near $78,800 is now the main resistance level. If $BTC stays above $70,500, the analyst believes the broader recovery could continue despite the recent market liquidations.

However, losing this support could weaken the current bullish setup and increase the risk of another decline.