Bitcoin's rally reverses in a flash crash

Bitcoin, which had climbed toward $79,000 over the week on hopes for a Treasury bond-buyback plan and the stalled CLARITY Act, reversed sharply as a wave of leveraged long positions unwound, and the price fell below $77,000. The reversal was triggered by an outsized flash crash in XRP, which dragged bitcoin, ether and solana down alongside it. Total crypto market capitalisation fell from $2.68 trillion to $2.55 trillion in about six minutes, the steepest such drop since October 2025.

More than $1.7 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated across the market over the following 24 hours, with long positions bearing the bulk of the losses as traders who had piled into the week's rally were forced out.

A rally built mainly on short covering and leveraged longs tends to unwind as fast as it built, and this reversal erased in minutes gains that had taken most of a week to accumulate.