Bitcoin approached $72,000 in a second day of upside as crypto short liquidations passed $3.1 billion. Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins are breaking records as short position liquidations pass $3 billion over two days.
Data from CoinGlass shows ongoing crypto short liquidations at $3.1 billion for Aug. Thursday’s tally was largest single-day wipeout of shorts ever recorded.
Crypto liquidations history (screenshot). Source: CoinGlass On Wednesday, BTC/USD led the charge by reacting to a liquidity intervention by the US Treasury with a price spike to the highest levels seen since the start of June.
At the time of writing, upside continues, with the pair reaching local highs of $71,992 on Bitstamp, per data from TradingView. Source: Cointelegraph/ TradingView CoinGlass shows Bitcoin accounting for just over half of the total short liquidations at $1.65 billion.
The numbers do not represent the largest crypto liquidation event if long positions are included. It is dwarfed by the $20 billion long liquidation cascade that followed Bitcoin’s reversal from the most recent all-time high of $126,200 in October 2025.
In US dollar terms, data from CoinMarketCap puts Thursday’s total liquidations in seventh place historically, calculating the day’s long and short liquidations as $3.25 billion.