Markets · Liquidations
Bitcoin fell below $80,000 as nearly $670M in longs liquidated
Bitcoin printed under $80,000 on Saturday, then traded near $80,524 by about 3:06 p.m. ET, while crypto liquidations over the prior 24 hours to about 3:05 p.m. ET ran to about $117.4 million in shorts and $669.7 million in longs.
Bitcoin fell below $80,000 on Saturday for the first time since Oct. 15, and leveraged longs took most of the forced closings [1][3][4]. At about 12:15 p.m. ET it traded at $79,799.95 (−2.14% over 24 hours) on CoinMarketCap [1]. By about 3:06 p.m. ET it had recovered to about $80,524 (−1.01%), with ether at $2,337.34 (−2.50%), according to CoinGecko [2]. Over the 24 hours to about 3:05 p.m. ET, crypto liquidations ran to about $117.4 million in shorts and $669.7 million in longs, per CoinMarketCap after Le Coin removed non-crypto contracts from the aggregate [3].
Liquidations are leveraged derivatives positions that exchanges forcibly close when margin runs out. These figures are the USD value of those closures on crypto contracts CoinMarketCap tracks, not a single-exchange print and not a long-plus-short total [3].
Bitcoin led at about $258.9 million (shorts $18.6 million / longs $240.3 million), then ether at $188.4 million (shorts $17.8 million / longs $170.6 million). Irys (−69.3%) was third at $42.0 million (shorts $34.5 million / longs $7.5 million), then Solana at $32.8 million (shorts $1.9 million / longs $30.8 million) and Zcash (−7.2%) at $24.3 million (shorts $3.2 million / longs $21.1 million) [2][3][6].
The break under $80,000 is not a multi-month low. CoinMarketCap's bitcoin daily series shows an Oct. 15 low of $79,735.86; the last UTC close below $80,000 was Sep. 17. Ether printed below $2,300 earlier Saturday, its first trade under that level since Aug. 20, and by about 3:06 p.m. ET was back above $2,300 [2][5]. Bitcoin's Oct. 23 UTC close of $81,074.19 was a second straight close below its 50-day simple average of $81,778.34 [4]. At about $80,524, bitcoin was about 36.1% below its all-time high of $126,080 (Oct. 6, 2025). ATH: Powered by CoinGecko API [2].
In Le Coin's view, the useful read is the skew, not why the tape moved. Weekend liquidity, oil and Middle East headlines, and ETF flows circulated as explanations; none is confirmed here, and this piece assigns no cause [3].
The tell is whether the Oct. 24 UTC close holds above $80,000 after the intraday break, and whether later CoinMarketCap windows still show longs dominating the 24-hour crypto-only tally as the 3:05 p.m. ET snapshot did [3][4].
Sources
- CoinMarketCap Pro API, quotes about 12:15 p.m. ET Oct. 24, 2026 (intraday sub-$80,000 print): https://coinmarketcap.com
- CoinGecko API, BTC/ETH/SOL/IRYS spot about 3:06 p.m. ET and BTC ATH, Oct. 24, 2026: https://www.coingecko.com/en/api
- CoinMarketCap Pro API, crypto-only liquidations, updated about 3:02-3:04 p.m. ET Oct. 24, 2026: https://coinmarketcap.com
- CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin daily OHLCV (UTC): Oct. 15 low; Sep. 17 close; Oct. 23 vs 50-day: https://coinmarketcap.com
- CoinMarketCap, Ethereum daily OHLCV (UTC): Aug. 20 low below $2,300: https://coinmarketcap.com
- CoinMarketCap Pro API, top-20 intraday (ZEC 24h %), about 1:07 p.m. ET Oct. 24, 2026: https://coinmarketcap.com
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.