Risk Runs Hot: Massive Crypto Liquidation Wave Slams Traders Overnight

[Ben Graham]

A sharp rise in crypto liquidations is sending a louder message of how some traders are using more leverage in recent months.

Average daily wipeouts have jumped from roughly $28 million in long bets and $15 million in shorts during the last cycle to about $68 million long and $45 million short in the current cycle, according to a new Glassnode and Fasanara report. That shift has made single sell-offs much more violent.

Early Black Friday Shock

Reports have disclosed that Oct. 10 was the clearest sign of the change. On that day, more than $640 million per hour in long positions were liquidated as Bitcoin plunged from $121,000 to $102,000.

Open interest fell about 22% in less than 12 hours, sliding from close to $50 billion to $39 billion. Traders felt the move fast. Positions were closed out on a scale Glassnode called one of the sharpest deleveraging events in Bitcoin’s history.

Futures Activity Hits Records

Futures markets have swelled. Open interest climbed to a record $68 billion and daily futures turnover topped $69 billion in mid-October.

Perpetual contracts now account for more than 90% of that activity, which concentrates risk in instruments that reset continuously.

Average daily futures wipeouts rising to $68 million long and $45 million short shows the costs when big swings occur.

Spot Trading Doubles

Based on reports, spot trading has also become more active. Bitcoin’s spot volume has climbed into an $8 billion to $22 billion daily range, roughly double what was seen in the prior cycle.

During the Oct. 10 crash, hourly spot volume spiked to $7.3 billion, with many traders stepping in to buy the dip rather than run for the exits. That flow has helped shift where price discovery happens.

Capital Flows And Market Share

Monthly inflows into Bitcoin have varied from $40 billion to $190 billion, pushing realized market capitalization to a record $1.1 trillion.

Roughly $730 billion has flowed into the network since the November 2022 low — more than all previous cycles combined.

As a result, Bitcoin’s share of overall crypto market cap rose from 38% in late 2022 to 58% today, based on the report’s figures.

Bitcoin As Settlement Rail

Meanwhile, there’s another striking stat: over the past 90 days the Bitcoin network processed nearly $7 trillion in transfers. That throughput exceeded what major card networks handled in the same window.

This has been cited as a reason some participants view Bitcoin not just as a store of value, but as an increasingly important settlement rail.

Bitcoin Price Action

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $93,165, up 6.5% and nearly 7% in the daily and weekly timeframes.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView