Solana Research Institute Reignites Discussion on US$ 18 Billion Cryptocurrency Crash

The Solana Research Institute reignited discussions on the cryptocurrency flash crash that occurred on October 10, 2025, on August 14, once again asserting that approximately US$ 18 billion was liquidated within 14 hours, with a peak of US$ 3.21 billion in a single minute. This topic was reopened in a post on August 14, sparking renewed debates about the lack of standardization in liquidation records across various platforms.

However, existing public figures have not reached a consensus. An analysis by Amberdata of six exchanges indicated a peak of US$ 3.21 billion at 21:15 UTC, with 93.5% of that minute related to forced selling, but its calculation for the total 14-hour window was US$ 9.89 billion. Meanwhile, a review by ESMA mentioned that the market estimated automated derivatives liquidations at around US$ 19 billion for the entire day. This suggests a measurement gap between different scopes rather than necessarily a calculation error.

Records also show that the pressure mechanisms on specific platforms varied. Binance stated that its spot and futures matching engines and API continued to operate, but some modules experienced failures after 21:18 UTC, causing delays in internal transfers and Earn redemptions, and the local prices of collateral such as USDe, BNSOL, and WBETH decoupled after 21:36 UTC; the exchange also indicated that it would compensate users liquidated due to these decouplings with two batches totaling approximately US$ 283 million. Meanwhile, ESMA noted that Binance amplified forced liquidations using internal collateral pricing.

In the on-chain environment, public data allowed for the reconstruction of a previous automated deleveraging event on Hyperliquid, which involved approximately US$ 2.1 billion and occurred with 34,983 executions within about 12 minutes, based on a study that has not yet undergone peer review and is based on publicly available data from the platform. For Aave, a report from Chaos Labs mentioned approximately US$ 180 million in liquidations, nearly US$ 500,000 in bad debts, and expected deficits, along with some price update delays in the market; the estimated net balance for the protocol was approximately positive US$ 1.5 million.

The letter submitted by the Solana Research Institute on July 23 and again during regulatory discussions did not provide a common platform scope or a method for correlating its figures with those of Amberdata. In the UK, the FCA's final framework for crypto assets, published in June 2026, began requiring qualified platforms and major traders to disclose transactions as close to real-time as possible, and no later than one minute after. Nevertheless, the cited text did not explicitly require a cross-platform uniform standard for liquidation volumes, the use of ADL, or losses absorbed by backstop mechanisms.