Weekend ‘Crypto Black Friday’ liquidation cascade: What actually happened?
Crypto markets absorbed approximately $19 billion to $20 billion in forced liquidations within 24 hours on Oct. 10, marking the largest single-day deleveraging event on record.
Hyperliquid processed more than $10 billion, while Binance accounted for roughly $2.4 billion. Altcoins bore the brunt of selling pressure while Bitcoin’s drawdown remained comparatively contained.
Bitwise portfolio manager Jonathan Man calculated that about $65 billion of futures open interest (OI) disappeared across venues during the cascade, resetting positioning to levels last observed in July.
The washout concentrated offshore, as Hyperliquid and Bybit absorbed the heaviest liquidation volume, while Binance’s share was smaller than typical for an event of this scale.
CME maintained a larger proportion of Bitcoin futures OI through the selloff, and Coinglass data now show CME, Binance, Bybit, and OKX as the top Bitcoin futures venues by notional.
Despite the remarkably negative episode, Bitcoin is only 8% down from its all-time high of $126,000, trading at $115,058.29 as of press time.
Major cap altcoins also registered significant recoveries. Ethereum, XRP, and Dogecoin are all up by 10% since Oct. 10. BNB is up by 15.6% in the same period, after registering a new all-time high of $1,375.11 on Oct. 13.
Solana is up by 8.3% since the liquidation event, and Cardano recovered 13% in the same period.
Funding and basis compression
Perpetual swap funding rates flipped negative or pinned near zero across major pairs into and through Oct. 10 and 11.
Additionally, Glassnode flagged aggregate funding at the lowest reading since the 2022 bear market, confirming a clean deleveraging. Exchange trackers around the trough recorded neutral-to-negative eight-hour prints on Binance, OKX, and Bybit.
Altcoin perpetuals showed an even sharper flip. Solana’s eight-hour funding rate fluctuated around -0.23% at multiple intervals on Oct. 11, a rare, broad “pay shorts” regime that signals a shift from crowded longs to defensive positioning.
That flip coincided with a collapse in altcoin OI and a sharp basis compression across dated futures, a classic footprint of a leverage purge centered outside Bitcoin.
By late weekend, several trackers showed monthly contracts back near 8% annualized for Bitcoin contracts on Deribit, a swing from mildly overheated to neutral, then a tentative re-steepening that accompanies reduced fragility.
ETF flows dynamics into the crash
Farside Investors’ data on US-traded spot Bitcoin ETF inflows show heavy net inflows earlier in the week, tapering into the crash, and then flipping slightly negative on Oct. 10.
BlackRock’s IBIT brought in $899.4 million on Oct. 7, and $426.2 million on Oct. 8. By Oct. 9, inflows had slowed to $255.5 million from IBIT, while Fidelity’s FBTC posted a $13.2 million outflow and Grayscale’s GBTC recorded $45.5 million of redemptions, producing a combined net inflow of nearly $198 million.
On the day of the crash, IBIT inflows dropped to $74.2 million, while other issuers’ inflows flipped negative.
As a result, the day’s net flow turned negative by $4.5 million, ending a streak of nine consecutive days of positive net inflows. Additionally, although the outflows were small, they marked a departure from the prior three sessions of dip-buying.
The sequence of flows is important. ETF inflows between Oct. 7 and Oct. 8 preceded lighter net buying and Oct. 10’s small net outflow. Meanwhile, funding and basis compressed sharply, confirming deleveraging on perpetuals and dated futures.
The combination of spot ETF demand fading right as derivatives leverage cleared helped explain the violent wick and quick stabilization.
Liquidity gaps and on-chain resilience
Stress concentrated where order books were thinnest. Several altcoins briefly printed near zero on some exchanges, driven by leverage unwind pullbacks that left momentary air pockets in specific pairs.
Bitcoin stabilized more quickly because it benefits from a deeper order book and a developing ETF buyer base.
Altcoins, lacking ETF-style demand sinks, absorbed the full brunt of derivative deleveraging through cross-margin collateral sales, negative funding across altcoin perpetuals, and patchy liquidity that amplified losses in the long tail.
The deleveraging flushed $65 billion of speculative positioning from the system in a single session. Until leverage rebuilds and market-makers widen back in, altcoins will likely remain more volatile than Bitcoin.
Despite the bloodshed, the event signals a heavy reset. Fewer forced sellers after the flush, modest basis rebuilding, and funding grinding back toward a flat level point to a market that has shed its fragility relative to a week ago.
The post Weekend ‘Crypto Black Friday’ liquidation cascade: What actually happened? appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
ZEC Experiences Rapid Price Increase: Unveiling the Driving Force of the Cryptocurrency Surge
- Zcash's $9.24B market cap surge by late 2025 stems from strategic upgrades, institutional adoption, and robust on-chain activity. - Institutional investors like Reliance Global Group and proposed ETFs signal growing acceptance of Zcash's hybrid privacy-transparency model. - Network metrics show 1,300% transaction volume spikes, $47.5M fee revenue, and 23% shielded supply, reflecting privacy demand amid compliance needs. - Sustainability concerns arise over ETF centralization risks, speculative FOMO-drive

The Endurance of Entrepreneurs and Its Impact on Sustained Value Generation
- Founder resilience drives long-term value in undervalued sectors through strategic patience and unconventional leadership. - Chung Ju-yung's Hyundai built South Korea's infrastructure and automotive industry by rejecting hierarchies and embracing competition. - Bill Walsh's 49ers demonstrated disciplined execution and undervalued talent identification, mirroring investment principles in volatile markets. - Modern cases like Kodak's pharmaceutical pivot and Promescent's stigma-breaking strategy show resil

Apeing’s approach of targeting early adopters is driving the latest major trend in cryptocurrency investments
- Apeing ($APEING) leads 2025 crypto social feeds with a $0.0001 presale entry offering projected 10,000% ROI via limited whitelist access. - Binance Coin ($BNB), Litecoin ($LTC), Avalanche ($AVAX), and Chainlink ($LINK) gain traction for utility-driven infrastructure and transactional roles. - Market shifts toward community-driven assets follow Binance's legal challenges, with Apeing's meme branding and audit transparency attracting early adopters. - Shiba Inu ($SHIB) and FLOKI ($FLOKI) show resilience th

Kalshi’s Federal Argument Rejected as Court Upholds State Gambling Laws
- Nevada judge rules Kalshi's sports-event contracts as unlicensed gambling under state law, rejecting its federal derivatives defense. - Market reacts with betting firms like DraftKings and Flutter seeing stock gains, while Kalshi seeks emergency appeal to block enforcement. - Ruling strengthens state regulators' stance, potentially influencing cases in New Jersey, Illinois, and Ohio, highlighting federal-state jurisdiction tensions.

