Bitcoin Liquidations Erase $715M in Long Bets in One Hour; Price Falls Under Strategy's $75,451 Cost

Leveraged traders betting on higher prices lost about $715 million in one hour on Sunday, roughly 96% of the $745 million in crypto futures liquidated, as bitcoin dipped to near $73,500 and ether to about $2,063, according to TokenPost data. The wipeout came three days after a Thursday flush liquidated about $880 million in four hours, 93% of it longs, which suggests leveraged long exposure was still stacked after the first purge. Those mechanics matter to anyone trading perpetual futures, and the price swings reach holders of Strategy (MSTR) shares or bitcoin ETFs.

At the snapshot, bitcoin stood at about $74,643, down roughly 1.5% on the day, while ether was near $2,133, down about 4.5%. CoinGlass data showed about $29.6 million in shorts liquidated, roughly 137,000 traders liquidated over 24 hours, and a $48.16 million ETH/USDT position on Binance as the largest single liquidation.

Longs Were 96% of $745M Liquidated in One Hour; Weekend Liquidity Can Deepen Cascades

The same data lists $343 million of ether liquidations and about $229 million of bitcoin liquidations, both measured over 24 hours rather than the one-hour window. Liquidation tallies differ by provider and time window, and at least one outlet's recap transposed the bitcoin and ether figures, so the split should be treated as approximate. TokenPost described the drop as a 15-minute move ahead of weekly close, and the reports name no specific catalyst.

Timing may have worsened the move. Bitcoin.com News has explained that thin overnight and weekend liquidity produces sharp wicks that push cascade lows deeper than spot selling alone would.

Strategy Holds 849,327 Bitcoin Worth About $500M Less Than It Paid at Coinbase Price

Bitcoin traded near $74,863 on Coinbase on Sunday, below the $75,451 average purchase price Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) has disclosed for its holdings, The Defiant reported. Strategy reported 849,327 bitcoin as of November 1, bought for about $64.08 billion. At Sunday's Coinbase price the stack was worth about $63.58 billion, roughly $500 million below cost; at the session low near $73,500 the gap would be about $1.65 billion, a TechTimes calculation. The company's last disclosed purchase was 811 bitcoin at $80,846 on average in the week of October 26 to November 1.

Each $1,000 move in bitcoin shifts the value of that stack by about $849 million, a TechTimes calculation from the reported holdings. At that sensitivity, a one-day swing in bitcoin changes the value of Strategy's holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars.

How Do Perpetual Futures Liquidations Feed on Themselves?

A perpetual futures contract has no expiration date, so traders post collateral and carry leveraged exposure; when losses push collateral below the maintenance margin level, the exchange can liquidate the position automatically. In practice the venue's risk engine submits a market order to close the position, which for a long is a sell, so forced position closures push price further and bring the next cluster of leveraged longs under their own thresholds.

Exchanges then look to an insurance fund to cover losing accounts, and auto-deleveraging is the final step, which closes profitable positions only when insurance funds cannot take over a bankrupt position. Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly, has argued that crypto exchanges lack circuit breakers and that their liquidation systems exist solely to keep the platform from becoming insolvent.

Who pays is measurable. A Stanford and Columbia study of Hyperliquid, a decentralized perpetual futures venue, found that manual front-end traders lost $1.11 billion between March 2025 and June 2026 while market makers gained $208 million, with forced exits and fees among the main channels of the transfer. The study covers one decentralized venue, so its results may not carry over to centralized exchanges such as Binance and OKX.

Thursday's $880M Flush and Sunday's $745M Flush Both Hit Longs Hardest

Thursday's four-hour flush followed a Nasdaq Composite drop of about 5.5%, the deepest one-day fall in 19 months, according to Reuters as relayed by TechTimes. Strategy's Michael Saylor called that session a 4-sigma day for equities, per 24/7 Wall St. Sunday's flush came on a weekend, in the hour through 5:21 p.m. ET, when U.S. stock markets were closed.

Taken together, the two episodes liquidated about $1.62 billion in three days, a TechTimes sum that mixes a four-hour window with a one-hour window. Both were at least 93% longs, which points to a market that kept leaning the same way after being punished once.

ETF Outflows of $1.28B and Citi's December Hike Call Set Backdrop for Sunday's Drop

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs lost about $1.28 billion from November 2 to 6, according to Farside Investors data cited by crypto.news, and Interactive Crypto called it their heaviest weekly redemptions since June. Bitcoin closed Friday at $75,775, its lowest close in a month, and was on track for a fifth straight losing week. Sunday's low sits about 3% below that close, a TechTimes calculation.

Citi said on October 14 that it expects a December Fed hike of 25 basis points after a hotter-than-expected September inflation reading, and futures then priced a roughly 94% chance of a hike. The October 29 theft of $6.36 billion from Binance wallets, which TRM Labs attributes with high confidence to a North Korea-linked group, has also weighed on sentiment, and crypto.news said the market began November under pressure after the breach.

Saylor Sees Next Bull Market While Citi Sees December Rate Hike

Saylor said in the company's third-quarter results on October 29 that Strategy was at the start of the next bitcoin bull market. Citi's rate-hike call, the ETF redemptions and Sunday's liquidations all cut against that view for now.

Saylor, who pursued a double major at MIT in aeronautics and astronautics and in science, technology and society, has also pushed Washington to build a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, telling a March 2025 White House summit that the U.S. should acquire 5% to 25% of bitcoin's supply by 2035. That policy advocacy is a position, not a forecast for next week's price.

Is Strategy Forced to Sell Bitcoin When Price Falls Below Its Cost Basis?

A paper loss is not a forced sale. Strategy states that its preferred securities are not collateralized by its bitcoin holdings and carry only a preferred claim on residual assets, and it reported a USD Reserve of $4.88 billion as of October 11, set aside for preferred dividends and interest.

The company has still sold bitcoin this year. Strategy said on October 29 it had sold about $431.8 million of bitcoin year to date to fund part of its preferred dividends and STRC buybacks under a board-authorized monetization program. Its week-ending August 9 sale of 1,690 bitcoin at about $64,262 came below the $75,385 average cost then on the books.

MSCI Publishes Final Non-Operating Company List Wednesday With Strategy at Risk

MSCI is due to publish its definitive list of companies affected by its new non-operating company screen on November 11, with the rule effective after the November 30 close. Strategy has argued in a response signed by Saylor and Le that MSCI's operating and non-operating labels are undefined in U.S. GAAP, IFRS or existing securities-law tests, while MSCI adopted the screen on October 15 anyway. An index removal would not delist Strategy from Nasdaq and creates no obligation to sell bitcoin, according to Blockhead.

An earlier JPMorgan estimate of $2.8 billion in potential passive outflows was calculated under an earlier MSCI proposal, and MSCI has not published its own selling-pressure estimate, TechTimes reported in August. A reader who holds a diversified global equity fund may carry indirect exposure through the index.

Monday Brings ETF Flows and Strategy's Filing; Sunday's Low Near $73,500 Is Next Test

Monday's U.S. ETF flows will show whether last week's outflows repeat or pause, and Strategy has disclosed purchases in Monday filings such as its October 5 8-K, so its next filing will show whether it kept buying with bitcoin under its average cost. Traders will watch the weekend low near $73,500, which Interactive Crypto described as a two-month low of $73,708 on its data, and any shift in Fed pricing ahead of December. The practical takeaway for leveraged traders: two flushes in three days each wiped out mostly longs, and because crypto exchanges lack circuit breakers, as Qureshi has argued, nothing built into the market pauses a third.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Prices and liquidation figures move quickly and vary by exchange and data provider.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a liquidation cascade in crypto?

It is a chain reaction in which forced position closures push price further in the same direction, which breaches the maintenance thresholds of more positions. Thin liquidity and crowded positioning can make it worse.

Why did longs get wiped out twice in three days?

CoinGlass data showed longs were about 93% of Thursday's $880 million and about 96% of Sunday's $745 million, which suggests long exposure stayed high after the first purge. Reports describe a sharp 15-minute slide ahead of the weekly close but give no single trigger for Sunday.

Is Strategy forced to sell bitcoin when it trades below its average cost?

Strategy says its preferred securities are not collateralized by bitcoin and cites a multibillion-dollar USD Reserve, but it has sold bitcoin in 2026 to fund dividends and buybacks.

What happens to passive investors if MSCI removes Strategy?

If MSCI's final list removes Strategy, funds that track affected MSCI indexes would be expected to sell their Strategy shares when the rule takes effect after the close on November 30, which is why MSCI's November 11 list matters.