“Softer Institutional Demand” Trigger for the $837M Crypto Meltdown, QCP Reports

• The crypto market has seen a massive $837 million liquidation event, with $672 million from long positions
• The crash was fueled by softer institutional demand, with spot Bitcoin ETFs seeing $1.2B in outflows
• As Bitcoin’s dominance falls, the Altcoin Season Index has surged to a 2025 high of 59%, a bullish signal

Bitcoin is fighting to hold the line at $112,750 this Monday, after a brutal weekend crash wiped out over $837 million in leveraged bets and reset the market’s momentum. 

The post-Jackson Hole euphoria is gone, replaced by a high-stakes battle at a critical price level. Here’s a direct breakdown of what the market is asking.

Why Did the Crypto Market Crash This Weekend?

According to a note from trading firm QCP Capital, the crash was a direct result of “softer institutional demand” for Bitcoin. The firm points to six straight days of net outflows from spot Bitcoin ETFs, totaling about $1.2 billion. This created a weak bid that could not absorb the weekend’s selling pressure, a situation made worse after Bitcoin’s Key $112k Support Was Lost in a Whale Dump.

The price drop triggered a massive liquidation cascade. In the last 24 hours, over $837 million was wiped out from leveraged traders’ accounts. Data from CoinGlass shows the vast majority of this, around $672 million, was from bullish “long” traders, resulting in a classic long squeeze that pushed prices down even further.

As a result, the fear of further liquidation has surged, as shown by the drop in the Bitcoin fear and greed index during the past two days from 60% to 47%

Top Reasons Why Crypto Dropped 

The top reason why the crypto market dropped in the past three days, even with the September Fed rate cut hype, was largely due to mixed actions from whale investors. Notably, on-chain data shows institutional investors have been accumulating more altcoins, led by Ether, compared to Bitcoin.

Another key observation is that institutional investors, led by MicroStrategy, have drastically reduced their rate of Bitcoin accumulation in the past few weeks.

“The scale of the move also reflects softer institutional demand in Jackson Hole. Spot BTC ETFs have logged six consecutive sessions of net outflows, about $1.2 billion, while Strategy’s August purchases have been smaller than usual. That bid was insufficient to stabilize weekend trading,” QCP noted.

Is Altcoin Season Still on the Table?

The altcoin market is likely to experience choppy consolidation in the near term due to lack of high impact news. Moreover, historical data analysis shows September is a bearish month for Bitcoin and the wider crypto market, especially after an impressive performance in August.

Nonetheless, crypto traders are expecting an altseason to materialize soon, potentially before the end of this year. According to market data from CoinGlass, the Altcoin Season Index has surged to the highest level in 2025 of about 59%.

“BTC dominance slipped from 60% to 57% on the rotation. While still above the sub-50% levels of the 2021 altcoin season, positioning is feeding talk that whales expect ETH to outperform. If staking ETFs for ETH win approval later this year, that narrative would gain further support,” analysts QCP Group noted.