While most market participants were resting, the cryptocurrency industry experienced a powerful surge in volatility and a series of landmark events. The main drivers were the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's July meeting and new statements by Donald Trump regarding bitcoin and Hyperliquid. This triggered a sharp market reversal upward and the largest wave of short-position liquidations in recent times.
Market on the rise: bitcoin and altcoins surge upward
Bitcoin demonstrated an impressive leap from $64,000 to nearly $70,000 within 24 hours. At the time of analysis, around 09:05 Moscow time, the leading cryptocurrency was trading near $69,329, gaining 8.09% over 24 hours. Ethereum showed even more aggressive growth — up 17.42%, rising from $1,900 to $2,280, and settled around $2,241.
A wave of positivity also swept through the top-20 cryptocurrencies. The growth leaders were Hyperliquid (HYPE) with a gain of 22.25%, Solana (SOL) — 10.53%, and XRP — 10.41%. Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by 6.80%. Among the top-100, the best result was demonstrated by Lighter (LIT), soaring by 24.12%. The top five also included Official Trump (TRUMP) with a rise of 17.93% and Aerodrome Finance (AERO) — 16.60%. Only a few assets were in the red, including Stable (STABLE) and Monero (XMR).
Institutional interest is also confirmed by spot ETF data: bitcoin funds attracted $517.19 million, Ethereum — $189.15 million, and XRP — $2.35 million. Meanwhile, Hyperliquid products lost $1.97 million.
Mass liquidations and regulatory news
Such a sharp reversal led to a cascade of liquidations. Within 24 hours, 170,195 trader positions were forcibly closed for a total of $2.99 billion. The main blow fell on short sellers — $2.74 billion versus a modest $255.77 million in long positions. The largest liquidation order was executed on Hyperliquid for the BTC-USD pair, amounting to $48.80 million.
Important events also occurred in the corporate sector. BitGo became the first foreign crypto company to receive a VASP license in South Korea. This is a landmark precedent: BitGo managed to obtain the status directly, rather than through the purchase of a local licensed player. Now the company's South Korean division will be able to provide digital asset custody and transfer services to institutional clients.
Meanwhile, the OKX crypto exchange restricted Hong Kong employees' access to Anthropic's AI model Claude. The reason was a brief block of a corporate account in early August. OKX acknowledged that some requests may have violated Anthropic's regional rules, and such queries are now redirected to other models. The exchange itself is actively investing in AI, spending between $6 and $8 million monthly, but Anthropic's rules prohibit the use of Claude in mainland China and Hong Kong.
The Fed minutes confirmed that inflation risks remain above the 2% target. Meeting participants noted tariffs, the Middle East conflict, and active investments in AI infrastructure as pressure factors. Although most committee members supported keeping the rate unchanged, several advocated for a 0.25 percentage point increase. The regulator also warned of risks to financial stability due to high valuations and growing leverage around AI.
My comment: The market is clearly in a phase of high sensitivity to macroeconomic signals. The Fed minutes, indicating the continuation of tight monetary policy, create fundamental pressure, but cryptocurrencies continue to ignore it in the short term. However, investors should remember: if the Fed decides to raise rates, the correction could be just as swift as the current growth. I recommend maintaining caution and not increasing leverage under such volatility.