Crypto traders liquidated for over $700 million in a day

On August 24, Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a sudden “flash crash,” losing $4,000 from its market price within minutes.

Jacob King, CEO of WhaleWire, suggested the sell-off was sparked by a single large holder liquidating over 24,000 BTC, worth more than $2 billion:

“Bitcoin flash crash today, which wiped out $310M in long positions, has been traced to a SINGLE Bitcoin whale dumping BTC for ETH. The whale sold 24,000+ BTC, including coins that hadn’t moved in 5+ years.” 

The effects of the sell-off were felt across the broader crypto market, which lost $130 billion from its total capitalization. 

Coming just a couple of days after a brief boost triggered by comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, the downward trend continued on Monday, August 25, with over 147,500 traders being liquidated in the past 24 hours, losing a total of $717 million.

Ethereum capitalizes on the Bitcoin crash

The 24,000 BTC sale cited by King, routed through decentralized exchanges (DEXs) like Hyperliquid (HYPE), led to nearly $2 billion converted into Ethereum (ETH).

More precisely, around 275,500 ETH, worth $1.3 billion, was staked, while 135,263 ETH, around $620 million, was leveraged into long positions.

As a result, Ethereum was briefly pushed to an all-time high of $4,953, underscoring its growing role as a yield-bearing alternative to “digital gold.”

However, volatility is likely to remain high for both assets until the federal rate cuts have been clarified, as evidenced by Ethereum already being down 3.89% since yesterday at the time of writing, trading at $4,594. 

Of course, Bitcoin’s resilience could also be tested by its ability to absorb large-scale whale activity such as that seen over the weekend. 

Featured image via Shutterstock