While traders slept, crypto markets suffered a bloodbath. A staggering $150 million in crypto positions were wiped out in just sixty minutes on January 8, 2026. Bitcoin crashed to $89,600, triggering a cascade of liquidations across exchanges. Not exactly the moon landing crypto bros had been predicting.
Bitcoin bore the brunt of the damage, accounting for $66.53 million in liquidations — nearly double what Ethereum experienced. ETH saw $33.78 million in positions liquidated during the same period, with a 2.8% price decline. Meanwhile, XRP tanked 6.8%. Guess those diamond hands weren’t so diamond after all.
Bitcoin took the heaviest hit, with $66.53M in liquidations crushing hopeful traders as altcoins followed the downward spiral.
The carnage unfolded in two distinct waves. The first hit at 7:00 a.m. UTC, obliterating $88.23 million in positions. An hour later, another $57.02 million vanished. Hyperliquid exchange led the liquidation charts, processing a whopping $45 million in forced closures. Their largest single liquidation? A painful $3.63 million position. Ouch.
Long positions made up about 65% of the liquidated value. Traders betting on a bounce got absolutely wrecked instead. The broader market took a hit too, with total crypto market cap shrinking from $3.21 trillion to $3.09 trillion — a 2.19% drop. The leveraged trades proved fragile in such volatile market conditions, exactly as experts have warned repeatedly. Over 137,000 traders felt the pain across multiple platforms during the 24-hour bloodbath. Most traders lacked proper stop-loss strategies which could have protected their positions from such extreme volatility.
This mess didn’t happen in a vacuum. U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had seen $486 million in outflows the day before — the largest single-day withdrawal since November 2025. Total daily redemptions reached their highest point in months, signaling growing institutional caution. Institutional investors were already heading for the exits before retail got liquidated.
The total damage for the day reached $464.44 million across all exchanges. A brutal reminder that leverage is a double-edged sword in crypto. When Bitcoin sneezes, the whole market catches pneumonia. And when liquidations start, they cascade like dominoes. Just another day in crypto, where fortunes are made and wiped out while most people are still brushing their teeth.
