$900M in Crypto Longs Liquidated as Ether, Bitcoin Retreat With Risk Assets

Crypto markets kicked off the week with nearly $900 million in liquidations as overleveraged long positions were flushed in a sharp correction across bitcoin (BTC $109,787.53) and ether (ETH).

Ether traders absorbed the heaviest losses, with $320 million in forced unwinds, followed by $277 million tied to bitcoin. Solana (SOL), XRP (XRP $2.9476), and Dogecoin (DOGE $0.2144) saw another $90 million combined, Coinglass data showed. The wipeouts followed ETH’s pullback from $4,700 to $4,400 and BTC’s slide to $110,200, tracking weakness in the S&P 500.

“This sharp move appears to be the result of overleveraged positioning, particularly after ETH’s recent run-up, and an overnight dip in the S&P 500, which weighed on risk assets more broadly,” Derixe.xyz wrote in a client note.

Volatility Surge

Volatility spiked after the flush, with daily BTC vol jumping from 15% to 38% and ETH’s surging from 41% to 70%, Derive.xyz data shows. The spread underscores that ether remains the more fragile asset: its rallies draw heavier leverage, but when momentum turns, liquidations force sharper two-way swings.

Options flows reflected caution. The 25-delta skew flipped negative for both BTC and ETH, marking the strongest preference for downside protection in two weeks.

Market Positioning

The reset has traders watching key round-number levels. Market pricing now implies a 35% chance of BTC retesting $100,000 by September-end, up from 20% a week ago. For ETH, odds of revisiting $4,000 sit at 55%.

That divergence is visible in derivatives. CME data shows record shorts in ETH futures, likely linked to hedging around digital asset tokenization (DAT) flows or funding-basis arbitrage.

“BTC implied vol collapsed to new record lows post-Powell, which was a bit of a surprise, leading to a sharp divergence against ETH’s still-rising implied vol,” Augustine Fan, head of insights at SignalPlus, told CoinDesk.

Outlook

With U.S. GDP data due August 28 and unemployment figures arriving in early September, traders expect more turbulence. While leverage has partially reset, positioning in ETH remains stretched relative to BTC, leaving ether especially vulnerable to further shocks.