Crypto

Bitcoin Briefly Falls Below $80,000 as Weekend Liquidations Follow $773 Million in Spot ETF Outflows

Bitcoin fell below $80,000 on Saturday to its weakest level in over a month, as $404 million of long positions were liquidated in four hours after two days of spot ETF outflows.

Oct 25, 2026 - 07:15

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Bitcoin dropped below $80,000 on Saturday, October 24, 2026, reaching its weakest level in more than a month as weekend selling forced the closure of hundreds of millions of dollars in leveraged bullish bets. The decline followed two consecutive trading days of net outflows from U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and came as reports of U.S. personnel evacuations in the Middle East weighed on risk sentiment, according to CoinDesk and The Block.

The price move

Bitcoin fell to about $79,280 around 11:20 a.m. ET on Saturday before recovering to $80,138 by 1 p.m., The Block reported, citing its price data. At that point the cryptocurrency was down 1.9% over 24 hours, while ether was down 3.8% at $2,314. Earlier on Saturday, CoinDesk reported bitcoin at $79,700, down 2.2% over 24 hours, with ether, XRP and solana each down between 3% and 4%.

Daily data from Yahoo Finance show an intraday low of $79,145.54 for October 24 and a close of $80,790.84 for that session, measured in UTC. As of 9:00 a.m. UTC on Sunday, October 25 (5:00 a.m. ET), bitcoin was quoted at $80,312.92, down 0.36% on the day. Bitcoin had closed at $84,011.97 on October 21 before falling on each of the following days, according to the same data.

Long positions bore the losses

Of $436.44 million in crypto positions liquidated in the four hours to 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, $404.15 million were long positions, according to CoinGlass data cited by The Block. Most came in two bursts: $208.21 million of longs in the 15 minutes from 10:15 a.m. ET, as bitcoin fell from about $80,640 to $80,100, and $131.17 million in the 15 minutes from 11:15 a.m.

Long liquidations between 8 a.m. and noon ET totaled $401.91 million, the largest for any four-hour period since October 14, when $505.57 million in longs were wiped out, The Block reported. Over 24 hours, liquidations reached $815.26 million, up 218% from the previous day, affecting 201,012 traders, while open interest in crypto futures fell 2.2% to $140.10 billion.

Ether accounted for $136.72 million of the four-hour liquidations, compared with $158.45 million for bitcoin, even though ether's market capitalization is about 18% of bitcoin's. Binance accounted for $226.07 million of the four-hour total, and $70.47 million of positions were liquidated on Hyperliquid, nearly all of them longs, per CoinGlass.

Two days of ETF outflows

U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net outflows of $137.94 million on Friday, October 23, after $635.49 million on Thursday, according to The Block's analysis of SoSoValue data. BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) accounted for $110.34 million of Friday's outflows and Fidelity's FBTC for $31.78 million, partly offset by $4.19 million of inflows to Morgan Stanley's MSBT. Because inflows from Monday through Wednesday totaled $1.078 billion, the funds still finished the week with $304.73 million in net inflows, and total net assets stood at $104.43 billion as of Friday.

Data compiled by Farside Investors show a similar pattern, with net outflows of $635.6 million on Thursday and $137.9 million on Friday, about $773.5 million over the two sessions. Spot ETFs trade only when U.S. stock markets are open, so the funds will next trade on Monday, October 26.

Spot ether ETFs took in $4.35 million on Friday but posted $220.60 million of net outflows for the week, and have had net outflows on 14 of 17 trading days in October, totaling $1.175 billion, according to SoSoValue data cited by The Block.

Geopolitical backdrop

CoinDesk linked Saturday's decline to a Wall Street Journal report that the U.S. was evacuating personnel from embassies and military bases across the Middle East on intelligence that Iran was preparing attacks against Americans. The Associated Press reported late Friday that the State Department was reducing staff at U.S. embassies in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to The Block.

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes wrote on X early Saturday that he had closed out the directional book at Maelstrom, his family office, saying "I dumped it all," The Block reported. On Sunday, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index stood at 40, in "Fear" territory, Stocktwits reported.