Bitcoin fell from $79,500 to $77,000, triggering $547 million in crypto liquidations and turning a modest 3% pullback into one of the more painful liquidation episodes of 2026. The decline followed an August rally from lows of about $64,000 to $65,000 earlier in the month, during which $1 billion to $3.5 billion in short positions were liquidated across various 24-hour periods. CoinGlass and other derivatives data aggregators showed the $547 million figure was closely aligned with 12-hour data during the spike. As the rally paused, traders who had opened leveraged long positions near the peak were forced out, accounting for most of the losses. The move came amid macro and regulatory tailwinds, including the U.S. Treasury’s expansion of long-term bond buybacks from $2 billion to more than $4 billion and crypto exchange compliance frameworks from the Trump administration. Perpetual futures (leveraged contracts without expiration dates), where 50x and 100x leverage is available, remain the main venue for such volatility. The scale of earlier short liquidations suggests bearish positions were substantially cleared, but the latest event shows long positioning can become crowded just as quickly.