TL;DR:
- Short liquidations in Bitcoin exceeded $3.1 billion over two days, according to CoinGlass data recorded on August 19 and 20.
- BTC approached $72,000 following a U.S. Treasury liquidity intervention, touching local highs of $71,992 on Bitstamp.
- Short-term holders sent 43,300 BTC to exchanges in their largest profit-taking event of the year, according to CryptoQuant.
The crypto market recorded one of its most intense liquidation episodes in recent months. Bitcoin surpassed $71,900, driven by a U.S. Treasury liquidity intervention that triggered a massive closure of short positions across the industry.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that cumulative short liquidations between August 19 and 20 exceeded $3.1 billion, with Thursday the 19th standing as the largest single day of short destruction ever recorded. Bitcoin accounted for just over half of the total, with $1.65 billion in liquidated short positions.
The event, however, does not represent the largest liquidation in absolute terms when long positions are included. The crash that followed the all-time high of $126,200 reached in October 2025 triggered a cascade of liquidations of long positions totaling $20 billion, a volume that puts the current episode in perspective. In terms of total liquidations—longs and shorts combined—CoinMarketCap ranks Thursday the 19th in seventh place all-time, with $3.25 billion on the day.
Bitcoin: Short-Term Holder Profit-Taking
As Bitcoin approached $72,000, short-term holders—defined as wallets with UTXOs less than 155 days old—seized the rally to exit positions they had been holding at a loss. According to onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant, this group sent 43,300 BTC to exchanges, their largest profit-taking event so far in 2026.
The SOPR indicator for this segment stood at 1.01 at Thursday’s close, its highest level since April, reflecting that most of the coins moved by these holders were transferred at a price above that of their previous transaction. The group’s aggregate cost basis—known as the STH realized price—was sitting at $68,700, the threshold above which analysts had warned that any recovery could be stalled by selling pressure from those looking to recover losses.
