One year after more than $19 billion in leveraged crypto bets were wiped out in a single night, bitcoin sits about 34% below the record it set four days before the crash
Key TakeawaysOver $19B in positions held by 1.6M traders were liquidated on Oct. 10-11, 2025, per Coinglass data.Bitcoin is trading near $82,700 today, roughly 34% under its $126,080 high from Oct. 6, 2025.About $3.3B in BTC shorts sit exposed up to $85,000, the next test for bulls after the Oct. 8 low. The Night That Broke the Market On Oct. 10, 2025, President Trump announced a 100% tariff on Chinese imports and what followed was the largest liquidation event crypto has ever recorded, with over $19 billion in leveraged positions forcibly closed and more than 1.6 million trading accounts liquidated
To elaborate, roughly 70% of the damage, about $6.93 billion, hit in a 40-minute window, and $3.21 billion was liquidated in a single minute at 21:15 UTC. Subsequently, bitcoin fell from $122,574 to $104,782 and the ethena stablecoin (USDe) briefly traded at $0.65, with Binance later paying out over $283 million to affected users
The cleanest way to measure the year is side by side
Simply put, bitcoin’s price never reclaimed the high it set four days before the crash. Every rally since has run into the memory of what leverage did that night
The crash did not end leverage; it just changed its timing and there have been repeat episodes in 2026, including a Jan. 20 flush and a Feb. 1 “Black Sunday II” that erased about $2.2 billion in positions within 24 hours
This week’s slide to a month-to-date low of $80,308, followed by a bounce back to $83K, was smaller but followed the same pattern, i.e. crowded longs got liquidated first, then shorts got squeezed
The positioning now seems to be headed in the opposite direction, with onchain trackers flagging about $3.3B in bitcoin shorts that face liquidation up to $85,000. If bitcoin pushes through that zone, forced buying could do to the bears what Oct. 10 did to the bulls, just on a smaller scale
In any case, the lesson from Oct. 10 is less about the tariff that triggered it and more about the leverage it exposed. The market today is smaller, and the leverage hasn’t gone away
Bitcoin briefly reclaimed $83,000 on Friday after plunging to a month-to-date low of $80,308 on Thursday, pushing its market cap…
Bitcoin briefly reclaimed $83,000 on Friday after plunging to a month-to-date low of $80,308 on Thursday, pushing its market cap…
Bitcoin briefly reclaimed $83,000 on Friday after plunging to a month-to-date low of $80,308 on Thursday, pushing its market cap…
