TLDR
- Bitcoin briefly dropped below $80,000 on Saturday, and crypto longs lost $404 million in four hours, per CoinGlass.
- Total liquidations hit $815.26 million over 24 hours, up 218% from the previous day.
- Spot bitcoin ETFs lost $773 million on Thursday and Friday, according to SoSoValue data.
- BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said he closed out his family office’s directional book, writing “I dumped it all.”
- The U.S. is reducing staff at Middle East embassies over Iranian threats, the Associated Press and the Wall Street Journal reported.
Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000 on Saturday, and traders with leveraged bets on higher prices took most of the losses. Crypto longs lost $404 million in four hours, according to CoinGlass.
Of the $436.44 million in positions liquidated in the four hours to 1 p.m. ET, $404.15 million were longs. Most of that came in two bursts.
Traders saw $208.21 million in longs liquidated in the 15 minutes from 10:15 a.m. ET. Another $131.17 million followed in the 15 minutes from 11:15 a.m.
Bitcoin fell to about $79,280 around 11:20 a.m. ET before climbing back to $80,138 by 1 p.m. Shorts then made up $8.35 million of the $10.62 million liquidated in the hour to 1:09 p.m. ET.
Long liquidations between 8 a.m. and noon ET totaled $401.91 million. That was the most for any four-hour period since Oct. 14, when $505.57 million in longs were wiped out.
Liquidations over the past 24 hours came to $815.26 million, up 218% from the previous day. A total of 201,012 traders were hit.
Ether and Hyperliquid Liquidations
Ethereum liquidations reached $136.72 million, close to bitcoin’s $158.45 million. Ether has only about 18% of bitcoin’s market value.
Longs made up 94.2% of bitcoin liquidations and 92.7% of ether’s. The largest single order was an $11.85 million ether long on Binance, closed at $2,307.65.
Binance accounted for $226.07 million of the four-hour total, and 96% were longs. On Hyperliquid, an onchain futures exchange, $70.47 million was liquidated, with 99.8% of it longs.
Open interest in crypto futures fell 2.2% to $140.10 billion over 24 hours. An exchange liquidates a leveraged position when the trader’s margin cannot cover the losses.
ETF Outflows and Hayes Exits
U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded $137.94 million in net outflows on Friday, after $635.49 million on Thursday. BlackRock’s fund made up $110.34 million of Friday’s total.
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Recorded $635M in Net Outflows on October 22
On October 22 (ET), spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded total net outflows of $635M, led by BlackRock’s IBIT with $254M. Spot Ethereum ETFs recorded total net outflows of $111M, led by BlackRock’s ETHA with $75.45M. pic.twitter.com/Vj2TzNyR03
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 23, 2026
The funds took in $1.078 billion from Monday through Wednesday. They held $104.43 billion in net assets as of Friday.
Spot ether ETFs had $4.35 million in inflows on Friday but lost $220.60 million over the week. They have seen outflows on 14 of 17 trading days in October.
BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes said early Saturday that he closed out the directional book at his family office, Maelstrom. “I dumped it all,” he wrote on X.
He said it “looks a bit dicey out there in macro and geopolitical land.” He did not say which risks he meant.
The Associated Press reported the State Department is reducing staff at U.S. embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. An internal memo cited increased Iranian efforts to target U.S. personnel.
The Wall Street Journal reported evacuations at embassies and military bases across the Middle East. President Trump has threatened a re-escalation of the war against Iran after the midterms in early November.
Bitcoin was down 2.2% over 24 hours at $79,700. Ether, XRP and solana were down 3% to 4%.
