On the overnight of October 15th, the cryptocurrency market experienced the largest wave of forced liquidations of margin positions since August. According to data from CoinGlass, the daily settlement volume reached $939.3 million, of which $791.62 million, accounting for 84.3%, was lost by long position holders.

The sharp drop in prices led to a large-scale deleveraging in the derivatives market, removing the speculative "burden" that had accumulated within the industry.

Ethereum was the most severely affected, with a liquidation amount of 286.11 million US dollars, followed by Bitcoin at 215.49 million US dollars. The largest single event recorded was the liquidation of a long position in the BTC-USDT trading pair on Binance, amounting to 12.03 million US dollars, with a trigger price of 80,208.96 US dollars; Binance itself accounted for 52.3% of the total liquidation volume.

How a nightmarish experience turned into a perfect trap for those waiting for a decline

Despite the sharp overnight fluctuations, what the technical analysis indicates is not a reversal of trend, but rather an orderly "cleaning" of the market. During the decline, the price of BTC tested the dynamic support level near the 50-day moving average (50 of MA), which is around $81,000, in a nearly precise manner, and encountered significant buying interest there.

Bitcoin has held onto the psychological barrier of $80,000, while the long-term support level ( MA 200 ) is significantly lower at $72,000, indicating that the current bullish trend remains strong.

Subsequently, the short squeeze confirmed strong demand at lower levels. As retail traders began to establish short positions at local lows under the influence of panic, the prices of BTC and ETH rebounded rapidly, triggering a chain reaction of liquidations of "short" orders.

In just one hour, Bitcoin shorts suffered a loss of $15.94 million, accounting for 95.2% of all liquidations of that asset in that hour; Ethereum shorts lost $19.41 million. The short positions of NEAR and DOGE also suffered a blow during the same hour, with the seller positions being instantly cleared.

Currently, the funding rates for major perpetual contracts remain within a stable positive range, between 0.005% and 0.009%. This indicates that, after the technical removal of excessive leverage, the medium-term optimism among market participants continues.