Bitcoin survives a $500M flush – Is a historic short squeeze next?

The last 24 hours were probably the most volatile.

Technically, Bitcoin rose more than 25% this week, and its highest wick nearly touched the $80k level. But BTC suddenly pulled back more than 6%, marking what the broader market is calling the biggest crypto “flash crash” since the 10th of October, 2025.

The result? $108 billion in shorts was liquidated within six minutes, and $500 million in longs within 30 minutes.

But was this the beginning of the Q4-style crash? As the chart below shows, BTC crashed 6.5%+ at the beginning of October. Meanwhile, this week BTC managed to hold its weekly gains, and it is still up 21%+.

Therefore, so far, it looks more like a typical correction, which occurred within a healthy weekly uptrend.

Notably, there was a significant signal from Bitcoin [BTC] ETFs as they recorded their highest inflows day on record this month. 

According to the data from SoSoValue, Bitcoin ETFs had $507 million in inflows on the 19th of August, their biggest daily inflow since the first week of May. The largest Bitcoin ETF, IBIT, led the demand with $285 million worth of inflows, of which IBIT attracted 56%, making it most popular among investors.

IBIT has so far posted $1.2 billion in inflows this month, suggesting that it could have the best month of inflows since May.