Bitcoin Drops Below $81K, Wiping Out $466M in Leveraged Bets

On October 24 2026 bitcoin slid under $81,000 and futures traders paid the price: $466.54 million in positions were forcibly closed within 24 hours, the bulk belonging to those who had bet on higher prices.

Longs absorbed $319 million of the pain while shorts lost $147 million. 179,389 traders were liquidated overall, with the single largest order hitting Binance’s ETHUSDT pair for $4.77 million.

Binance led the liquidation volume at $228 million, followed by Bybit and OKX. The Fear & Greed index fell to 46, firmly in “fear” territory.

Context matters: the same bitcoin had set an all-time high above $125,000 only weeks earlier in October 2025 before a record $19 billion liquidation wave swept the market.

Based on information from cryptonews.net