Bitcoin experienced a sharp decline in early trading hours on February 23, 2026, dropping below $64,500 to its lowest level in over two weeks. This rapid sell-off erased weekend gains and sent the Crypto Fear & Greed Index back into "extreme fear" territory.
The market crash triggered a massive wave of liquidations across cryptocurrency derivatives markets. According to data from CoinGlass, approximately 140,000 traders were liquidated within hours, with the total value of wrecked positions skyrocketing to nearly $500 million.
One particularly notable liquidation involved an unidentified whale trader who was wrecked for $61.51 million on the HTX exchange. This massive liquidation occurred on the BTC/USDT trading pair during Bitcoin's painful drop.
Another high-profile casualty of the downturn was Taiwanese-American entrepreneur and former musician Jeffrey Huang, known as "Machi Big Brother." Data from blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain shows he was partially liquidated on his Ethereum (ETH) position. This continues a streak of significant losses for Huang; CryptoPotato recently reported his entire crypto portfolio had fallen below $1 million, posting a loss of around $28 million.
Following the latest liquidation, his total losses have surpassed $28.8 million. Despite this, Huang continues to build on his Ethereum longs, now holding 1,700 ETH tokens worth approximately $3.2 million, with a liquidation price of $1,818.74.
Ethereum's price was rejected at the $2,000 level over the weekend and plunged to $1,850, marking its first significant drop since the February 6 market crash when it bottomed at $1,750.
