Crypto traders took on more borrowed money heading into the 10/10 anniversary, not less. That left them exposed when Bitcoin (BTC) slid toward $80,000 and over $1 billion in bets were forcibly closed.
On October 10, 2025, a tariff threat from President Donald Trump set off more than $19 billion in forced closures, a record. This week, some traders claimed fear of a repeat had pushed the market to cut risk.
“The bear market PTSD is so strong that people actually deleveraged for an anniversary to a liquidation event. Think how deep that PTSD goes if you’re doing that. I’m telling you, there is mass under exposure and things actually look good,” said Eric Conner, a crypto veteran and one of the co-authors of EIP-1559.
But did they?
Borrowed Bets Rose Into Bitcoin’s Drop
Leverage means trading with borrowed money. If prices move the wrong way, exchanges close the position automatically, which is called a liquidation.
That peak landed on the day of the selloff. Bitcoin fell to $80,393, and over $1 billion was liquidated in 24 hours, as BeInCrypto reported. About $930 million came from bets on rising prices.
BeInCrypto flagged the risk a day earlier. Its 10/10 repeat analysis found the market carried nearly as much leverage for its size as before last year’s crash.
CryptoQuant’s Estimated Leverage Ratio compares open bets with the Bitcoin held on exchanges. A higher reading means more borrowing. It climbed from about 0.234 on October 3 to roughly 0.256 on October 8.
The ratio has since eased only to about 0.250, still above the week’s start.
However, total open bets fell from about $154 billion to roughly $142 billion, CoinGlass data shows.
Funding Costs Fall Far Below 2025 as the Fear Gauge Holds at Greed
Funding rates are fees that traders betting on gains pay to those betting on losses. High fees signal a crowded bullish side.
Deribit’s Bitcoin funding rate stood near 7.1% annualized this week, against 26.9% before the 2025 crash. On OKX, funding averaged about 3.5% over the past seven days, exchange data shows.
Alternative.me’s Fear and Greed Index scores sentiment from zero to 100. It read 64, or “greed,” on Saturday and dipped only to 59 during the Friday selloff.
Bitcoin trades at $82,699, up 0.14% in 24 hours, according to BeInCrypto data. That leaves it about 35% below its October 2025 record near $126,000. Glassnode data places the next cluster of leveraged bets near $75,000.
