Bitcoin dip to $80,350 triggers $1.09B liquidations as $82,500 retest wobbles
CoinGlass data showed $1.05B of Thursday’s liquidations were longs, while short-term holders sent 55,600 BTC to exchanges at a loss.
Bitcoin’s slide to $80,350 on Bitstamp coincided with $1.09 billion in total crypto liquidations over the 24 hours to 10:00 UTC Friday, per CoinGlass. The rebound back toward $82,500 has turned the weekly close into the next clean trigger, after on-chain data showed short-term holders sent 55,600 BTC to exchanges at a loss.
Liquidation Flush Hits as BTC Tags $80,350 and Snaps Back Toward $82,500
CoinGlass data put total crypto liquidations at $1.09 billion for the 24 hours to 10 am UTC on Friday, after a broad sell-off in Bitcoin and major alts pushed BTC/USD down to $80,350 on Bitstamp. The print was Bitcoin’s lowest level since Sept. 18 before price recovered to around $82,500 on Friday.
The liquidation spike was the largest daily tally since Aug. 21, when BTC/USD rose from $73,000 to $79,500 and triggered $1.3 billion in crypto short liquidations. This time, the stress ran the other way, with downside pressure forcing closures into the drop rather than shorts getting squeezed on a rip.
The sell-off also followed reports that the US government moved more than 12,000 BTC it had previously confiscated, a type of transfer that can create a supply-overhang narrative even when it is only a custody move. The article did not establish whether the coins were sent to exchange-linked wallets or sold.
Why This Move Looked Like Forced Deleveraging: $1.05B of Longs Wiped
The composition of liquidations is the tell. CoinGlass data showed long positions accounted for $1.05 billion of Thursday’s total liquidation volume, making the flush overwhelmingly a long-side event.
Mechanically, that matters because liquidations are forced position closures triggered when margin falls below exchange requirements, and long liquidations can add incremental sell pressure as positions are closed into a falling market. When the bulk of the damage is concentrated in longs, the move often reads less like discretionary spot selling and more like leverage getting reset, with volatility amplified by cascading margin calls.
That leverage reset can cut both ways into the next session. If the forced selling has largely cleared, price can stabilize quickly. If liquidations re-accelerate on another dip, it usually means positioning rebuilt too fast and the market is still trading with a fragile base.
Short-Term Holders Send 55,600 BTC to Exchanges at a Loss as $82,500 Becomes the Line
On-chain flow data added a second stress signal during the drawdown. CryptoQuant contributor Amr Taha said short-term holders, defined as entities holding Bitcoin for up to six months without selling, sent 55,600 BTC to exchanges at a loss on Thursday.
CryptoQuant’s framing in the article is specific: “transactions at a loss” refers to coins moved to exchanges at a lower price than during their previous on-chain transaction, a pattern often associated with an “impulsive urge to exit” during fear-driven downside. Taha also stressed that exchange transfers do not prove full liquidation, writing that users “may not have opted to sell the entirety of their positions, even after moving them to their accounts.”
Taha contrasted the day’s loss-driven transfers with a prior stress point, noting: “Notably, Bitcoin was trading above $81,000, compared with $59,300 in June — a price difference exceeding 36%.” The article also said CryptoQuant viewed Thursday’s loss tally as larger than June 26, when Bitcoin fell below $60,000 for the second consecutive day.
Technically, the market now has a single level doing most of the work. Rekt Capital said Bitcoin was failing its retest of roughly $82,500 and tied the next directional read to the weekly candle close: “Bitcoin is currently failing its retest of ~$82500. Weekly Close below $82500 and turn it into resistance however and Bitcoin will be back in its Macro Accumulation Range,” he said Thursday on X. The same $82,500 zone was described as key during Bitcoin’s uptrend since early July and as the breakout point for an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern, where holding the breakout level as support is the confirmation step.
My Read: $82,500 Weekly Close Is the Cleanest Trigger After the Leverage Reset
The liquidation number is being treated like a sentiment headline, but the skew is the point. When $1.05 billion of Thursday’s liquidations are longs inside a $1.09 billion 24-hour flush, the cleaner interpretation is forced deleveraging rather than a sudden wave of discretionary selling, and that makes the next weekly close more informative than the intraday wick to $80,350.
The threshold that matters is whether BTC can close the week around $82,500 without turning that level into resistance, because that is where the technical retest and the post-liquidation positioning reset meet. If liquidations cool materially and short-term-holder exchange inflows mean-revert after the 55,600 BTC “at a loss” day, the setup starts to look like a leverage washout with a defined reclaim level rather than the start of a broader breakdown.
