A $61 million Bitcoin (BTC) leveraged long position was forcefully liquidated on the cryptocurrency exchange HTX, formerly Huobi, on February 23, 2026. This marked the largest single liquidation in the past 24 hours, driven by a sharp 4% price dive in Bitcoin, a plunge of the asset from about $68,600 on Saturday to $64,300 on Monday, thereby erasing its weekend gains and triggering roughly $468 million in crypto futures liquidation across 137,422 traders, with 93% of the losses coming from long positions. This suggests a market that still had the potential for upside heading into the week, but got flushed when the bids vanished.
Bitcoin Breaks Key Technical Levels
The selloff dragged the crypto Fear and Greed Index to 5 out of 100, a reading that has only been matched three times since its 2018 launch. This level was seen during the major market crashes of August 2019, June 2022, and earlier in February 2026, when Bitcoin slid to $60,000. The key resistance levels of $67,000 and $68,500 were breached, and the 0.5 Fibonacci retracement level was decisively broken to the downside.
Bitcoin is now trading 48% below its October all-time high of $126,000 and 5.5% below its 2021 peak market of $69,000. Although Monday’s wreckage cleared leverage, the pattern remained intact with traders reloading longs into every bounce. In theory, the leveraged positions amplify the crash by triggering a cascade of forced liquidations with the fall of Bitcoin.
A prominent whale position was liquidated, adding to the downturn. The Taiwanese-American entrepreneur and former musician partially liquidated their ETH position. Although the amount faced a critical dip, it rose to over $28.8 million following the latest liquidation. He continues to build on his Ethereum longs, now holding 1,700 tokens, worth $3.2 million.
The ETH price was rejected at $2,000 over the weekend and plunged to $1,850 for the first time since the February crash, which bottomed to $1,750, according to the market data. An X handle posted that a decline in stablecoin supply indicates capital exiting the market. Solana, XRP, and Avalanche declined by 6-9 per cent, highlighting the widespread risk aversion across the crypto spectrum. Additionally, HYPE (Hyperliquid’s token) also recorded a $10.72 million in liquidations, which was notable for a non-top-tier asset, according to the market data.
Whale Accumulation Signals Potential Recovery
Adding to the market sentiment, U.S. President Donald Trump proposed 15% global tariffs, jolting the global financial markets, thereby sparking a broad risk-off move. Investors shifted their focus from volatile assets to the traditional safe havens like gold, which climbed over 2 per cent, exacerbating the downturn across digital tokens.
However, analysts said that the sell-off in the crypto ecosystem was driven by the global risk-off sentiment that was driven by Trump’s tariff announcement. Despite the weak sentiment and ETF outflows, the whale accumulation and extreme fear levels suggest a possible medium-term recovery phase.
