Crypto sells off sharply as BTC, ETH and XRP slide; $1.71 billion liquidated in 24 hours

CoinMarketCap data shows a sudden, steep sell-off hit the crypto market, with total market capitalization falling from $2.68 trillion to $2.55 trillion—about $108 billion wiped out in roughly six minutes. It was the biggest flash crash since October 2025, as clustered leveraged positions were forced out, dragging major coins and altcoins lower at the same time. CoinGlass reported that 281,846 traders were liquidated over the past 24 hours, totaling about $1.71 billion. Longs took the brunt of the damage, with roughly $574 million in long positions closed in just four hours. Derivatives positioning also cooled sharply: aggregate open interest fell by about $3.34 billion, or 5.18%, to around $55.6 billion. Over the past four days, more than $4.5 billion in crypto long positions have been liquidated. Bitcoin slid to about $76,500. The move followed an earlier rally from $63,600 to $79,500 that had triggered around $2.7 billion in short liquidations. After the market turned on August 22, highly leveraged longs quickly came under pressure. Bitcoin dropped to roughly $76,500 within six minutes, sparking about $258 million in long liquidations. Ethereum also saw heavy selling, sliding toward $2,426 alongside approximately $293 million in liquidations. XRP posted the sharpest drop among the three, falling from $1.70 to $1.51—down about 12%—with related liquidations near $122 million. Altcoins were hit hard. The TOTAL3 index, which tracks the market cap of crypto assets excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, fell from $784 billion to $731 billion—about $53 billion erased in a single candlestick, a decline of roughly 6.7%. Over the same window, Bitcoin was down about 2.5%. Analysts cited $70,500 as the key near-term support for Bitcoin, with major resistance around $78,800. Holding above support could leave room for a rebound; a break below it may further slow the current rally's momentum.