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Bitcoin's latest rally has triggered an unprecedented wave of short liquidations.
According to CoinGecko data, $BTC climbed as high as $68,982.40 over the past 24 hours before easing to around $68,189.62. The move represented a gain of roughly 5.4%. This is Bitcoin's first break above $68,000 since June.
The first-ever daily billion-dollar short liquidation volume in $BTC, and of course, also the largest short liquidation volume in $BTC ever!
— Vetle Lunde (@VetleLunde) August 19, 2026
*Binance limited its liquidation data in April 2021, while Bybit limited its data between September 2021 and February 2025. pic.twitter.com/UCIGftzSqt
The scale of the derivatives squeeze was historic. K33 Research data shows that Bitcoin perpetual futures recorded approximately $1.1 billion in short liquidations in a single day. It has surpassed previous major liquidation events. The chart shows earlier peaks of roughly $757 million in May 2021 and $694 million in November 2025.
Vetle Lunde, head of research at K33, described the event as Bitcoin's "first-ever daily billion-dollar short liquidation volume" and the largest short liquidation volume on record.
There is an important caveat to the historical comparison. Lunde noted that Binance limited its liquidation data in April 2021. As a result, the record should be understood within the available exchange data.
Nearly $2 billion worth of total liquidations
CoinGlass data showed $1.92 billion in total crypto liquidations over the preceding 24 hours, with short positions accounting for $1.74 billion.
Over the preceding four hours, $1.73 billion in positions were liquidated, of which $1.63 billion were shorts.
The largest individual liquidation was a roughly $48.8 million $BTC-USD position on Hyperliquid.
Binance recorded about $517.6 million in liquidations over four hours, including $491.9 million in shorts. Hyperliquid saw $489.3 million in liquidations, almost all of them short positions.
A possible catalyst
Notably, the rally coincided with a very notable development in the U.S. Treasury market.
The Treasury announced on Aug. 19 that it would at least double the maximum size of its liquidity-support buyback operations for longer-dated nominal Treasury securities.
This caused a sharp rise in long-term Treasury yields. The 30-year yield had climbed to roughly 5.34%, its highest level since 2007.
That timing has fueled speculation that the Treasury announcement helped trigger the Bitcoin move by boosting appetite for risk assets.