Crypto’s Biggest Liquidation Day Ever May Have Left Time Bombs in Its Wake

The Oct. 10, 2025, crypto liquidation cascade set an all-time single-day record and, according to market observers, the real damage may surface in the coming weeks if distressed firms reveal losses.

Oct. 10’s Liquidation Shockwave Still Rattles the Crypto World

Analysts say the event’s combination of a macro shock and extreme leverage created conditions that could still produce bankruptcies or emergency restructurings as audits, redemptions, and margin gaps are still being tallied. Some have even claimed that the crypto economy is heading toward the darkest time since 2022.

The prominent analyst Hasu chimed in on Tuesday, offering his take and prediction on the chaos that ensued last month. “October 10 2025 was the largest liquidation event in the history of crypto by a big margin. an estimated $20-30B of positions were liquidated. The previous record was $8B,” Hasu wrote. “Thus, it shouldn’t be a surprise if a number of funds, incl. those with delta neutral strategies, are revealed to be blown out. It would be more of a surprise if they weren’t.”

Hasu added:

“I think we can unfortunately expect more bad news over the coming months, as we slowly learn who is swimming naked.”

The selloff last month was triggered by a geopolitical catalyst: a public pledge that day to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, which accelerated risk-off positioning already primed by aggressive leverage. Within 24 hours, reports show that more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated across over 1.6 million accounts, the largest single-day liquidation on record, while global digital asset market capitalization fell by roughly $400 billion.

Moreover, some analysts, like Hasu, believe the wipeout may have vaporized anywhere between $20 billion and $30 billion in value. Order books thinned rapidly and spreads ballooned, magnifying price impact and turning de-risking into a feedback loop of forced sales. Leverage had piled up into early October, with open interest having expanded sharply year to date in major pairs and even more in popular altcoin venues.

Even that same day, bold speculators were already whispering that the ghosts of failed crypto firms might soon crawl out from the shadows, ready to reveal the wreckage left behind. “In the next few days, we’ll likely hear about a few funds or desks blowing up, forced unwinds, cascading liquidations (think 3AC/FTX type),” the popular X account known as Jampzey told its 115,000+ followers.

The immediate aftermath removed a significant layer of leverage—what many describe as a “reset”—but it also dented sentiment. October finished in the red for bitcoin for the first time since 2018, breaking the “Uptober” narrative and slowing fresh risk capital as firms assessed client outflows and collateral marks. That dynamic can take time to play out; capital calls, delayed NAV strikes, and investor letters often arrive well after the initial shock.

Recovery in headline assets began around Oct. 13, aided by institutional buying, even as smaller coins lagged. Yet the structural issues the event exposed—fragmented liquidity, extreme leverage availability, and limited guardrails on some venues—remain key risk vectors if that type of volatility returns. The episode renewed debates about whether crypto market plumbing should adopt more standardized risk controls to dampen forced-sale spirals.

On top of that, the market still hasn’t shaken off the hit — it’s been limping ever since. Moreover, on Monday, the rumor mill went into overdrive as social media chatter claimed the over-the-counter (OTC) crypto desk Wintermute took a major hit from the Oct. 10 crash and was allegedly gearing up to sue Binance. Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy quickly shut that down, calling the gossip false and putting the brakes on the speculation.

“Literally nothing changed since this tweet and we never had plans to sue binance, nor see any reason to do it in future,” Gaevoy wrote on X. “I should probably ask to make a note of all the people spreading baseless rumors, but most of people believing these have goldfish memory capacity, so I wont.”

Still, history doesn’t lie about the scale of this blowout. The biggest liquidation days in 2021 barely grazed $10 billion, and even the chaos surrounding Terra and FTX in 2022—multi-day meltdowns that sent traders reeling—paled next to Oct. 10’s single-day obliteration. What made this one sting was the perfect storm: a macro shock, leverage at record highs, and a synchronized washout across nearly every major venue.

For now, all eyes are glued to the post-mortem watchlist: fund NAV updates, lender balance sheets, exchange insurance fund tweaks, and those on-chain wallet shifts from big trading entities. If fresh cracks appear, they’ll likely show up first in firms overstuffed with altcoins, tangled in mismatched collateral, or dependent on razor-thin liquidity pools. Meanwhile, the blue chips may hold their ground—so long as institutional money stays put and leverage rebuilds at a crawl.

In the end, Oct. 10 wasn’t just another market hiccup—it was a full-blown stress test for crypto’s plumbing. The dust may have settled, but some still believe the real autopsy could stretch well into year’s end as balance sheets get combed and skeletons, if any, come tumbling out.

FAQ❓

• **What happened on Oct. 10, 2025?**A global liquidation cascade erased over $19B in leveraged crypto positions in 24 hours, the largest single-day tally on record.
• **Why could failures appear weeks later?**Losses at funds and desks often surface during audits, redemptions, and collateral reconciliations across U.S., European, and Asian markets.
• **Which assets were hit hardest?**Majors like bitcoin and ether fell sharply but mid-caps and memecoins suffered deeper, faster drawdowns on thinner liquidity. Despite a brief comeback, the market is still on a downtrend.
• **What should observers watch now?**Firm disclosures, lender updates, exchange insurance fund changes, and on-chain flows tied to large entities across key hubs. It is still possible, however, that many firms survived the event unscathed.