Liquidation Engine Cools: $415M in 24H, BTC Shorts at 62%
Liquidations have cooled to $414.7M over the past 24 hours, and the direction is no longer one-sided. Longs paid $202M, shorts paid $212.7M, a near 50-50 split that marks a clear shift from the past two days, when one side was getting squeezed almost exclusively.
The 24-Hour Picture: A Market Rebalancing
Compared with the $459M wipeout a few hours earlier and the $619M day before, the total is shrinking. That is the first sign that the leverage flush is losing steam. What stands out is the balance: 24-hour longs account for 48.7% of the total, shorts for 51.3%. Two days ago, longs were paying 79% of everything. The reset has shifted who is getting hurt.
BTC Shorts Are Still the Biggest Line Item
Bitcoin still leads all coins with $178.2M liquidated in 24 hours, and $110.2M of that came from shorts. That is 62% of BTC's total, even though the price has held around $78,700 on Binance and OKX after touching $80K and getting rejected. The 1-hour window tells the same story from the other side: 81% of last-hour liquidations were shorts, worth $1.89M, as the price refuses to give back the gains. BTC remains the main battleground for bears betting on a failed breakout.
Time Windows Tell Different Stories
The 4-hour window is almost perfectly split at $5.34M long versus $5.32M short. But the 1-hour window flipped hard to shorts, and the 12-hour window shows shorts still carrying 56% of the load. That pattern means the squeeze is not over, just quieter. Big single orders still exist: a $5.08M ETH short on Binance was the largest wipe, followed by a $4.37M BTC long.
Alts Are Still Clearing Longs
The picture is different for altcoins. XRP liquidations were 81% longs, SOL 63% longs, HYPE 78% longs, DOGE 87% longs. These are positions opened during the rally that are being unwound at lower levels, while the majors chop sideways. The market is not moving in one direction anymore; it is splitting by asset class.
What This Means for Traders
The takeaway is that the easy squeeze trades are done. With 24-hour flow balanced and the total shrinking, chasing the same short squeeze play from yesterday carries more risk. Watch the 1-hour window: if shorts keep dominating that time frame while the price holds above $78K, BTC is still grinding higher. If longs start getting picked off in the 1-hour window instead, the breakout attempt is fading.
Data as of 06:27 Beijing time on August 25, covering Binance, OKX, Bybit, Hyperliquid, Gate, Bitget and other major exchanges.