BTC Shorts Paid $110M as Price Holds $79K, OI Up 2.1%
BTC Bears Paid $110M, Again
Bitcoin shorts lost $110.2 million in the past 24 hours, or 61.8 percent of all BTC liquidations across major exchanges, according to CoinVictor data at 05:46 Beijing time. Total liquidations on the coin reached $178.2 million, roughly 43 percent of the $415.8 million wiped out across the whole market in the same window. This is the second straight session where the short side absorbed most of the pain, after shorts paid 90 percent of the hourly liquidations when the price first touched $80,000.
Price Holds $79K Despite Repeated $80K Rejections
The asset is trading at $79,000, up 1.6 percent on the day, after failing twice to hold above the $80,000 mark. Binance and OKX both report a 24-hour high near $79,975-79,999 and a low around $76,650, which confirms the range traders are watching: every push above $79,900 has been sold, and every dip below $77,000 has been bought. The result is a compression pattern that keeps forcing leveraged traders on both sides to exit.
Open Interest Rises While Price Sideways
BTC open interest rose 2.1 percent to $45.5 billion over the same 24 hours, a sign that new positions are being opened even as the price stalls. Binance added 3.6 percent of its own OI, Bitget added 4 percent, while Bybit trimmed slightly. Rising OI with a flat price usually means fresh money is picking a side, and so far the liquidation data says the short side is the one getting run over.
What This Means for Traders
The key level to watch is $80,000. If the price pushes through and shorts keep getting liquidated above it, the squeeze could extend quickly because the short book is still large. If it gets rejected a third time, the recent pattern suggests longs will take the next hit instead. Funding rates remain mildly positive around 0.0086 percent, so neither side is paying a heavy premium to stay in the trade. Data as of 05:46 Beijing time on Aug 25, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major venues.