$BTC A very strong short squeeze just happened on the crypto market, especially Bitcoin, and many people are calling it one of the biggest bursts in recent history. 
On the night of 19/8 (Vietnam time around the early hours of 20/8), Bitcoin surged from below $65,000 to a peak near $69,500–$70,000 (up about 7–9% in a short time), then stabilized around $68,000–$69,000. This rally triggered a mass wave of short liquidations because the price broke through dense liquidation clusters around $65,000–$67,500. 
Key figures
• More than $1 billion in shorts were liquidated in about 1 hour (some sources cite ~US$1.1–1.3 billion in a short window).
• Total crypto shorts liquidated over 24 hours reached around $1.7–$1.9 billion, with Bitcoin accounting for the lion’s share (hundreds of millions of dollars); Ethereum was also hit hard.
• This is recorded as the largest Bitcoin short liquidation event based on available data (exceeding prior records such as 2021). 
The main reason is that short positions became “overcrowded” after a prolonged period of BTC moving sideways/down. When the price breaks an important level, shorts are forced to buy back to close their positions → pushing the price even higher → creating a cascading effect. Additional supportive factors, such as a White House meeting related to crypto and movements in U.S. bond yields, also helped fuel a more positive sentiment.
Besides crypto, on the same day there was also a major short squeeze in Moderna stock (MRNA): the price jumped more than 150–160% in just one session thanks to news that an mRNA cancer vaccine trial was successful, causing paper losses of about $4.8–$5 billion for short sellers. But the phrase “the craziest short squeeze in history” circulating in the Vietnamese community (especially crypto traders) is aimed primarily at this Bitcoin event. 
On the night of 19/8 (Vietnam time around the early hours of 20/8), Bitcoin surged from below $65,000 to a peak near $69,500–$70,000 (up about 7–9% in a short time), then stabilized around $68,000–$69,000. This rally triggered a mass wave of short liquidations because the price broke through dense liquidation clusters around $65,000–$67,500. 
Key figures
• More than $1 billion in shorts were liquidated in about 1 hour (some sources cite ~US$1.1–1.3 billion in a short window).
• Total crypto shorts liquidated over 24 hours reached around $1.7–$1.9 billion, with Bitcoin accounting for the lion’s share (hundreds of millions of dollars); Ethereum was also hit hard.
• This is recorded as the largest Bitcoin short liquidation event based on available data (exceeding prior records such as 2021). 
The main reason is that short positions became “overcrowded” after a prolonged period of BTC moving sideways/down. When the price breaks an important level, shorts are forced to buy back to close their positions → pushing the price even higher → creating a cascading effect. Additional supportive factors, such as a White House meeting related to crypto and movements in U.S. bond yields, also helped fuel a more positive sentiment.
Besides crypto, on the same day there was also a major short squeeze in Moderna stock (MRNA): the price jumped more than 150–160% in just one session thanks to news that an mRNA cancer vaccine trial was successful, causing paper losses of about $4.8–$5 billion for short sellers. But the phrase “the craziest short squeeze in history” circulating in the Vietnamese community (especially crypto traders) is aimed primarily at this Bitcoin event.