• CoinGlass recorded $771 million of crypto liquidations in 24 hours, $685.6 million of it long positions, about 89% of the total.
• Bitcoin traded at $81,382 at 9:20 p.m. ET on Oct. 12, 2026, down 2.8% over 24 hours; Ether fell 4.6% to $2,425.
• U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs had $681.1 million of net outflows last week, their worst since late June, per SoSoValue data cited by The Block.
• Long-heavy liquidations point to crowded leverage rather than a failure of settlement or payment infrastructure.
• Watch ETF flow direction and open-interest rebuilding for whether the unwind is finished.

Bitcoin fell below $82,000 on Oct. 12, 2026, and the numbers say the damage came mostly from leveraged longs being closed out. The Block reported $771 million of crypto liquidations over 24 hours, citing CoinGlass, with $685.6 million of that on the long side. Bitcoin traded at $81,382 at 9:20 p.m. ET, down 2.8% on the day. This is a derivatives-positioning story, not a payments-rail story.

Longs absorbed nearly nine-tenths of the losses

Long positions made up $685.6 million of the $771 million liquidated in 24 hours, per CoinGlass figures cited by The Block. By our arithmetic that leaves roughly $85 million in shorts. In the last 12 hours alone, $600 million of $631.8 million was long. That skew indicates positioning was crowded one way before the drop, and the unwind accelerated as price broke below $82,000.

ETF outflows added to the pressure

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $681.1 million of net outflows last week, their worst week since late June, according to SoSoValue data cited by The Block. Spot Ether ETFs lost $542 million. Ether fell 4.6% to $2,425, and Solana and XRP dropped 7.5% and 6.4%. Outflows from regulated wrappers show the selling was not confined to offshore perpetual-futures venues.

Corporate buyers were small against the selling

Corporate treasuries kept buying but at a scale far below the liquidation volume. Strategy bought 250 BTC for about $21.5 million between Oct. 5 and Oct. 11 at an average of $86,194 per bitcoin, above where the market traded on Oct. 12. Bitmine raised its holdings to 6,028,946 ETH after buying 12,532 ETH, per The Block. Accumulation at this size did not offset the leverage unwind.

What to watch next

The next read is whether flows and leverage rebuild. Continued net ETF outflows would suggest the selling is spreading beyond the derivatives market, while a fall in liquidation volume with stable prices would suggest the flush is complete. The Block also noted a 6.1% drop in South Korea's Kospi on Oct. 13 local time, which analysts linked to U.S. tech weakness, so cross-asset risk sentiment is a live driver.