Bitcoin surged toward $70,000 on August 19 as speculation grew that a surprise U.S. Treasury bond buyback expansion helped trigger the largest daily short-liquidation volume on record. Total crypto liquidations topped $1.9 billion in 24 hours, with short positions accounting for $1.74 billion, while Strategy's stock jumped more than 11%.
Bitcoin climbed as high as $68,982.40 before easing to around $68,189.62, a gain of roughly 5.4% and its first break above $68,000 since June. The rally wiped out $1.9 billion in liquidations across the crypto market in 24 hours, with short bets alone accounting for $1.74 billion.
A historic short squeeze
K33 Research data shows Bitcoin perpetual futures recorded approximately $1.1 billion in short liquidations in a single day, surpassing prior peaks of roughly $757 million in May 2021 and $694 million in November 2025. K33's head of research, Vetle Lunde called it Bitcoin's "first-ever daily billion-dollar short liquidation volume", though he noted the comparison is limited by Binance's decision to cap its liquidation data in April 2021.
The largest single liquidation was a roughly $48.8 million BTC-USD position on Hyperliquid. Binance recorded about $517.6 million in liquidations over four hours, including $491.9 million in shorts, while Hyperliquid saw $489.3 million, almost all of it short positions.
Treasury buyback move behind the rally
The U.S. Treasury said it would at least double the maximum size of its liquidity-support buybacks for longer-dated debt, raising them from $2 billion to at least $4 billion per operation starting September 9 through November 4. The move followed a spike in the 30-year Treasury yield to 5.34% on Tuesday, its highest level since 2007, amid persistent inflation concerns and heavy government borrowing.
After the announcement, the 30-year yield dropped toward 5.20%, and the 10-year yield also moved lower. Stocks, gold and crypto all moved higher while the dollar weakened, but the reaction across markets was uneven. Bitcoin's market capitalization rose to $1.4 trillion as its weekly gain briefly topped 10%, whereas the S&P 500 added just 0.34%. Gold, however, climbed past $4,490 per ounce for a gain of more than 3.5%.
Strategy's MSTR stock tracked bitcoin's move closely. The shares surged from just under $95 to nearly $107 before cooling to around $103, a swing of more than 11% at its peak.
Sources: Bitcoin.com News, CryptoPotato, U.Today
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