Bitcoin dips under $80,000, wiping out $404 million in leveraged longs

Bitcoin briefly slipped below $80,000 on Saturday, and the traders betting on higher prices wore most of the pain. Of the $436.44 million in crypto positions liquidated in the four hours to 1 p.m. ET, $404.15 million were longs, according to CoinGlass data cited by The Block.

The move came in two bursts. In the 15 minutes from 10:15 a.m. ET, $208.21 million in longs were liquidated as bitcoin fell from roughly $80,640 to $80,100, per CoinGlass; another $131.17 million went from 11:15 a.m. Bitcoin bottomed near $79,280 around 11:20 a.m. before recovering to $80,138 by 1 p.m., per The Block's price page. As it climbed back, shorts took $8.35 million of the $10.62 million liquidated in the following hour — a short squeeze on the way up.

Ether was hit disproportionately. Of the four-hour total, ether accounted for $136.72 million against bitcoin's $158.45 million, despite ETH's market cap being only about 18% of bitcoin's, The Block noted. Longs made up 94.2% of bitcoin liquidations and 92.7% of ether's. The single largest order over 24 hours was an $11.85 million ETH-USDT long closed on Binance at $2,307.65. Binance accounted for $226.07 million of the four-hour liquidations, 96% longs; on the onchain exchange Hyperliquid, $70.47 million was liquidated, 99.8% longs.

The derivatives flush tracked weakening spot demand. U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw $137.94 million in net outflows on Friday — 80% of it from BlackRock's IBIT — after $635.49 million on Thursday, per SoSoValue data. The funds still netted $304.73 million for the week after strong Monday–Wednesday inflows. Spot ether ETFs have now seen outflows on 14 of 17 October trading days, totaling $1.175 billion.

Key facts

• $404.15M of $436.44M liquidated in four hours Saturday were longs (CoinGlass, via The Block).
• Bitcoin low ~$79,280 at ~11:20 a.m. ET, recovering to $80,138 by 1 p.m. (The Block price page).
• 24-hour liquidations: $815.26M, up 218% day-on-day, 201,012 traders hit; crypto futures open interest down 2.2% to $140.10B (CoinGlass).
• Spot bitcoin ETF outflows: $137.94M Friday, $635.49M Thursday; net +$304.73M on the week (SoSoValue).
• Ether ETFs: net outflows on 14 of 17 October trading days, $1.175B total (SoSoValue).

The real-world read

Two framing points. First, these liquidation figures come from exchange data aggregator CoinGlass and are inherently estimates — exchanges report liquidation feeds inconsistently — so treat them as directional, not exact. Second, the $404 million long wipeout, while sharp, is smaller than the $505.57 million long flush of Oct. 14, so Saturday was a continuation of an ongoing deleveraging, not a singular event.

One widely circulated input is opinion, not fact: BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes posted at 2:18 a.m. ET that he had sold his family office's directional book — "I dumped it all" — citing macro and "geopolitical" risk he did not specify. Hayes runs a trading operation and talks his book publicly; his call is his, and it preceded, not explained, the drop.

Opinion, and whose

• Arthur Hayes (Maelstrom): "I think we gotta go down to go up," said he'd sit out and "wait for the all clear signal," citing unspecified macro and geopolitical risk (via X). The Block noted the State Department is cutting embassy staff in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the UAE over Iranian targeting concerns (per AP), but Hayes did not link his sale to any specific event.

Sources

• The Block (Tier 2, reputable secondary) — reported the liquidation, ETF-flow and price figures, citing CoinGlass (liquidations/open interest), SoSoValue (ETF flows), its own Bitcoin Price page, Hayes's X post, and the Associated Press (embassy staffing). No marketing or sponsored material was used.

This is news coverage, not financial advice.