Bybit Crypto Insights Report: postmortem from last Friday’s liquidation – diversify your trading platforms and choose battle-tested ones

What happened on October 11, 2025

Source: CoinGlass

Last Friday, the cryptocurrency market experienced a dramatic and historic sell-off, resulting in the largest single-day liquidation event ever recorded. Over $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out across major centralized exchanges, affecting more than 1.6 million traders globally. This unprecedented cascade of liquidations was triggered by a combination of macroeconomic shocks and technical vulnerabilities in exchange infrastructure. 

The immediate catalyst was the US announcement of a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, which sent shockwaves through global financial markets. Investors rushed to de-risk, and crypto — often seen as a speculative asset class — was hit especially hard. Bitcoin plunged from around $121K to a low of $101K before recovering slightly, while Ethereum dropped nearly 30% and Solana fell over 40%.