As Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) led the broader crypto market in adding more than $220 billion over the past 24 hours, the daily cryptocurrency liquidations surged to the highest level since October 10, 2025.
The crypto industry registered approximately $3.35 billion in total liquidations over the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGlass analyzed by Finbold on August 20. As such, the total daily liquidations surged to their highest level since crypto’s Black Friday, when $2.46 billion in shorts were rekt and $16.78 billion in longs were wiped out.
As of press time, the Ethereum ecosystem recorded the largest single-network forced closure of derivatives positions, amounting to $610 million, up 7.27% in 24 hours, based on metrics from Coinalyze.
The meme coin space, which has a reported market capitalization of about $23.8 billion at the time of publication, also experienced the biggest daily spike in crypto liquidations of roughly 12.25% to 15.1 million.
What’s next for the crypto market?
The sharp liquidation of crypto traders during the past 24 hours has catalyzed a short squeeze – a sharp upward price rally that occurs when rising prices force short sellers to buy to cover their positions, thus adding extra buying pressure.
Furthermore, Bitcoin and Ethereum led broader crypto assets with higher Open Interest (OI), the total unsettled futures in the derivatives market, amid persistent positive Funding Rates, a fee set to maintain balance between the perpetual contract price and the underlying asset price, as per updates from Coinalyze.
Notably, positive funding rates signal that traders are more bullish, as they are willing to pay the fee to shorts to maintain their positions. Specifically, Bitcoin saw an 8.85% uptick in OI to $23.8 billion, while its average Funding Rate was +0.0077%. On the other hand, Ethereum has seen an 11.93% increase in OI to $13.2 billion, with its Funding Rate at +0.0099%.
Consequently, if more derivative traders keep piling into an already bullish market, the crypto industry could experience a further uptrend.
