CoinEx News: Crypto markets staged an epic short squeeze on August 19, with Bitcoin jumping nearly 8% to briefly break $70,000. Over 24 hours, $2.975 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated, including more than $2.7 billion in shorts, while over $1 billion in Bitcoin shorts were wiped out within roughly one hour and Ether gained as much as 19%. At least eight major BTC short positions and two ETH short positions suffered liquidations exceeding $10 million each; the largest included a $108 million ETH short and BTC shorts worth $96.39 million, $71.46 million and $61.11 million, although these figures represent the positions’ notional value rather than the whales’ exact realized losses.

Policy and liquidity tailwinds helped ignite the rebound, but forced buying from crowded bearish leverage amplified it, leaving traders to watch whether BTC can hold above $70,000 and attract genuine spot demand after short covering fades, or whether late long positions become the market’s next liquidation risk.