Bitcoin pullback erases $250M in leveraged longs

On Aug. 23, a Bitcoin price retreat closed out $250.57 million of leveraged long positions in a 24‑hour period, with $101.39 million liquidated in a concentrated four‑hour window that began around 07:00 UTC, according to CoinGlass data. Aggregate Bitcoin futures open interest declined 2.65% to about $54.54 billion, and major perpetual funding rates stayed close to the 0.01% baseline.

CoinGlass recorded $101.39 million of long liquidations during the four‑hour episode and $250.57 million of long liquidations across 24 hours out of $339.73 million in total crypto liquidations. Bitcoin made up $38.66 million of the four‑hour total and $55.82 million over the full day. During the selloff, BTC traded near $76,088 and later recovered toward $77,300.

Futures positioning metrics showed smaller leverage after the pullback. Open interest fell to roughly $54.54 billion, perpetual funding rates remained near 0.01%, and the aggregate account long‑short ratio stood at 0.9238.

Exchange‑level data showed Binance accounted for $65.02 million of the four‑hour crypto liquidations, including $58.64 million of long liquidations. The largest single forced unwind reported over 24 hours was an $11.72 million ETHUSDT liquidation on Binance.

CoinGlass historical snapshots captured larger short‑liquidation tallies on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, with different timing and scope producing varying reported totals for those earlier events.

Flows into U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs were active earlier in the week. Farside Investors recorded five consecutive sessions of ETF inflows through the prior Friday, including $307.5 million on Aug. 21. The ETF creation channel was closed over the weekend, pausing that source of spot demand.

Liquidations occur when exchanges close leveraged positions that fall below maintenance margin requirements, forcing traders out of their positions. Open interest measures the total value of outstanding futures contracts. Funding rates are periodic payments between long and short holders on perpetual contracts, and rates near zero mean no persistent premium was paid by either side.

The data for Aug. 23 show the reduction in long exposure and a concurrent fall in open interest and muted funding. Traders and institutional participants will monitor spot ETF creations and any renewed expansion in open interest or funding when markets resume trading.