Crypto liquidation and collapse timeline
The biggest liquidation days and platform collapses since 2020, in one table. Liquidation totals come from third-party trackers; collapse losses come from court and regulator documents. They are measured differently, so check each row's source.
Data checked on 2026-10-23
Events
| Date (UTC) | Type | Event | Reported amount | Measurement / recovery | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-03-12 | Liquidation | "Black Thursday", global sell-off on COVID-19 | $1.1 billion | 24 hours, BitMEX only, measured by Skew | The Block ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2021-04-18 | Liquidation | Weekend drop in early Asian hours | $10 billion | one day, market-wide futures, measured by Bybt | CoinDesk ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2021-05-19 | Liquidation | Continued slide after Tesla stopped accepting BTC | $8 billion | 24 hours, market-wide futures, measured by Bybt | CoinDesk ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2021-09-07 | Liquidation | The day BTC became legal tender in El Salvador | $3 billion | 4 hours, market-wide futures, measured by Bybt | CoinDesk ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-05 | Collapse | Terra/LUNA: UST stablecoin depegged, LUNA went to zero; Terraform filed for bankruptcy 2024-01-21 | $40 billion | No distribution or published figure found | US DOJ (SDNY) ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-05-10 | Liquidation | Terra's UST stablecoin depegs, LUNA collapses | $1 billion | 24 hours, market-wide futures, measured by Coinalyze | CoinDesk ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-06-12 | Collapse | Celsius: halted withdrawals, filed for bankruptcy 2022-07-13 | $4.7 billion | Users got back 72.1% (as of 2026-01-22) | FTC ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-06-27 | Collapse | Three Arrows Capital: British Virgin Islands court ordered liquidation | $3.4 billion | Liquidators estimate 45.74%; cumulative figure not published | The Block ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-07-01 | Collapse | Voyager: suspended trading and withdrawals after 3AC defaulted, filed for bankruptcy 2022-07-05 | $1 billion | About 36% initially; cumulative figure not published | FTC ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-11 | Collapse | Genesis / Gemini Earn: Genesis halted withdrawals, about $900M of Gemini Earn stuck; Genesis filed 2023-01-19 | $900 million | Users got back 100% (as of 2024-06) | CoinDesk ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-11-09 | Liquidation | Run on FTX; Binance walks away from the takeover | $700 million | 24 hours, market-wide futures, longs only, measured by CoinGlass | CoinDesk ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-11-11 | Collapse | FTX: bank run, withdrawals halted, Chapter 11 filing in Delaware | $8 billion | Users got back 105% (as of 2026-07-31) | US DOJ (SDNY) ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2022-11-28 | Collapse | BlockFi: paused withdrawals after FTX fell, filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey | No total found | Users got back 100% (as of 2024-07) | CoinDesk ↗ Recovery source ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2023-09-13 | Collapse | JPEX (Hong Kong): unlicensed platform; withdrawal problems after a public SFC warning, referred to police | HK$1.616 billion | No distribution or published figure found | The Standard ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2025-02-03 | Liquidation | US announces tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China | $2.38 billion | 24 hours, market-wide futures, measured by CoinGlass | The Block ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
| 2025-10-10 | Liquidation | US announces an extra 100% tariff on Chinese goods | $19 billion | 24 hours, market-wide futures, measured by CoinGlass | CoinDesk ↗ | 2026-10-23 |
No events match these filters.
How to read this table
- ・Liquidation totals are third-party estimates (Bybt, CoinGlass, Coinalyze, Skew) as reported by the media, usually a 'more than' or 'about' lower bound. Trackers cover different exchanges and time windows, so the totals cannot be added up or compared directly.
- ・Collapse amounts are the loss figures stated in the source document, and the basis differs by case (US DOJ findings, FTC allegations, total claims filed). Recovery is the cumulative share documented for each case, mostly measured against the USD value on the bankruptcy filing date; Gemini Earn was repaid in kind.
- ・The JPEX amount is in Hong Kong dollars (amount involved), not US dollars.
How to cite
Fee Otter, "Crypto liquidation and collapse timeline", https://feeotter.com/en/data/crypto-incident-timeline/, data checked 2026-10-23. Licensed under CC BY 4.0; please credit the source.