Six weeks of bearish positioning ended in 24 hours. Here is how the trade unwound, who got caught, and whether the squeeze has legs.
Summary
- More than $3 billion in leveraged short positions were liquidated across crypto derivatives markets on Aug 19 and 20, 2026, making it the eighth largest liquidation event on record and the largest concentrated short squeeze since November 2021.
- Bitcoin climbed from an intraday low near $64,100 to a peak above $72,000, while Ethereum surged roughly 18% in 24 hours, its strongest single day move since March 2024.
- The U.S. Treasury doubled the maximum size of its liquidity support buyback operations for long dated bonds from $2 billion to $4…
