1 Year Since Crypto’s Biggest Liquidation Event: Bitcoin Hasn’t Fully Recovered Yet

October has a very solid reputation in the cryptocurrency markets as “Uptober” – a green month that has historically led to major gains.

Last year’s edition was quite historic. On the one hand, BTC skyrocketed to its latest all-time high of roughly $126,000. On the other hand, though, it experienced its worst liquidation event ever. This weekend marks the first anniversary of the latter.

A Date to Remember

In the days leading up to October 10, more on that date in a second, BTC was climbing hard, earning the name Uptober. The latest record came on October 7 at just over $126,000. Analysts and permabulls were quick to praise the move and highlight the next massive targets of $200,000 or even $500,000 by the end of the year.

The reality was different. Very different. And a lot more painful. On October 10, 2025, escalating US-China trade tensions, among other reasons, triggered a violent sell-off that was exacerbated by the enormous amount of leveraged positions. According to most estimates, the total value of wrecked positions exceeded $19 billion within 24 hours. This was the worst such day in the entire 16-year history of the cryptocurrency industry at the time.

Bitcoin led the charge with a nosedive from $122,000 to $105,000 on most exchanges and even to $101,000 on a few. Over 1.6 million traders were caught by surprise and were liquidated.

The timing made the collapse particularly brutal: BTC had reached a fresh (and its latest) all-time high above $126,000 just 48-72 hours earlier. Today, a year later, that level sounds like a mirage.

Yet to Recover in a Different Market

That crash was the start of a prolonged bear market that culminated, at least for now, with a price slump to under $58,000 on July 1. In other words, bitcoin tumbled by 53% in months after its worst liquidation event to date. It now sits at around $82,000-$83,000, which is still around 34% lower than the 2025 peak.

Although the situation appears significantly better now than it did in July, there are still some warning signs, such as the correction experienced in the past week, in which BTC dipped from $87,000 to $80,400 before it rebounded to the current levels. On the plus side, at least five indicators tracked by BIT recently moved into territory associated with bullish market regimes.

But the October 10, 2025 event is one that has to be remembered. Hopefully, it could serve as a lesson to certain traders who tend to go all-in once the market is doing well and vice versa. I wish I could say that this is precisely the case, and people have learned their lesson. However, last week’s pullback in which over $1 billion in leveraged positions was wiped out in less than a day says otherwise.