Liquidation: crypto longs lose $404m in 4 hours as bitcoin dips below $80k

Bitcoin briefly dropped below $80,000 on Saturday, 24 October. The Block put the low at about $79,280 around 11:20 a.m. US Eastern time (15:20 UTC). By 1 p.m. (17:00 UTC) it was back at $80,138. Earlier in the day CoinDesk wrote that bitcoin had reached its weakest level in more than one month and was down 2.2% over 24 hours at $79,700. CoinDesk linked the slide to news of US personnel leaving posts in the Middle East.

Traders betting on a rise took most of the losses. In the four hours to 1 p.m. Eastern (17:00 UTC), $436.44m of crypto positions were liquidated and $404.15m of them were longs, per CoinGlass data quoted by The Block. Bitcoin positions made up $158.45m of that and ether positions $136.72m, even though ether's market cap is only about 18% of bitcoin's. Longs were 94.2% of the bitcoin liquidations and 92.7% of the ether ones.

Two bursts did most of the damage. $208.21m in longs was liquidated in the 15 minutes from 10:15 a.m. Eastern (14:15 UTC), and another $131.17m in the 15 minutes from 11:15 a.m. By venue, in the same four hours, Binance had $226.07m, 96% of it longs, and Hyperliquid $70.47m, 99.8% of it longs. Over the past 24 hours, as of about 1 p.m. Eastern, CoinGlass showed $815.26m liquidated and 201,012 traders hit.

So what is a liquidation? Leverage means trading with borrowed money, so a small price move turns into a big gain or a big loss. You put up margin, a deposit that backs the loan. A long is a bet that the price will rise. A short is a bet that it will fall. If the price moves against you and your margin can no longer cover the loss, the exchange closes the position for you. That forced close is the liquidation. The Block describes it the same way: an exchange liquidates a leveraged position when the trader's margin can't cover the losses.

The forced close is automatic and you do not get a say. Coins you hold in a plain wallet, with no borrowing, are not liquidated. The risk sits with leveraged positions, and with longs most of all when the price falls.

One caution on the numbers. Trackers and news outlets count over different time windows and with different data, so totals do not match. Here we use one tracker, CoinGlass, as quoted by The Block, and always give the window.

Our pages for this story: bitcoin at freekonomist.com/crypto/btc/, trust ratings of exchanges such as Binance at freekonomist.com/exchanges/binance/, and what top traders say next to what the market does at freekonomist.com/crowd/.

حقائق مؤكدة

• Bitcoin briefly dropped below $80,000 on Saturday, 24 October.^[1][2]
• The Block put the low at about $79,280 around 11:20 a.m. US Eastern time (15:20 UTC), with a recovery to $80,138 by 1 p.m. (17:00 UTC).^[1]
• CoinDesk wrote that bitcoin reached its weakest level in more than one month and was down 2.2% over 24 hours at $79,700.^[2]
• In the four hours to 1 p.m. Eastern (17:00 UTC), $436.44m of crypto positions were liquidated, $404.15m of them longs, per CoinGlass data.^[1]
• In the same four hours, bitcoin liquidations were $158.45m and ether liquidations $136.72m; longs were 94.2% of bitcoin's and 92.7% of ether's.^[1]
• Ether's market cap is about 18% of bitcoin's, per The Block.^[1]
• In the same four hours, Binance had $226.07m of liquidations, 96% of them longs, and Hyperliquid $70.47m, 99.8% of them longs.^[1]
• $208.21m in longs was liquidated in the 15 minutes from 10:15 a.m. Eastern, and $131.17m in the 15 minutes from 11:15 a.m.^[1]
• Over 24 hours, as of about 1 p.m. Eastern, liquidations were $815.26m with 201,012 traders hit, and futures open interest fell 2.2% to $140.10bn.^[1]
• An exchange liquidates a leveraged position when the trader's margin can't cover the losses.^[1]
• CoinDesk linked the slide to news of US personnel leaving posts in the Middle East.^[2]

التبعات

• مؤكدLeveraged traders betting on a rise took most of the losses in the drop.
• قراءتناForced closes of longs are sold at market prices and can add pressure on the price.

لا يزال مجهولًا

• What exactly drove the sell-off: CoinDesk points to Middle East news, but the sources do not prove a single cause.
• How other trackers count the liquidations: they use other windows and data.
• How many of the closed positions belonged to large players and how many to retail traders.

من يتأثر

Global. People who follow bitcoin or trade with leverage

المصادر

1. The Block: Crypto longs lose $404 million in four hours as bitcoin briefly slips below $80,000 24 أكتوبر 2026 · إعلام
2. CoinDesk: Crypto under weekend pressure, bitcoin slides below $80,000 on U.S. Middle East evacuations 24 أكتوبر 2026 · إعلام