Bitcoin Two-way price action reduces both bull and bear plays, highlighting challenging market conditions for traders.
Over the past 24 hours, the price of BTC has traded between $107,000 and $113,000, erasing around $600 million in bullish and bearish futures bets across the entire market. The liquidation wave hit as traders reduced their leverage on major exchanges, with CoinGlass data showing around $355 million in long positions and $301 million in short positions closed over 24 hours.
Bitcoin is responsible for most of the damage, more than $340 million, followed by ether. to 200 million dollars. Solana , And rounded out the big losers, each seeing tens of millions of dollars in forced liquidations.
Such surges are common after sharp price swings. Leveraged positions on perpetual futures exchanges are automatically closed when traders’ margin levels fall below maintenance thresholds, often causing cascading price movements as positions are sold in limited liquidity.
Large sell-offs are key indicators of short-term turning points in market sentiment.
“Despite Bitcoin’s sharp decline over the past 24 hours, positioning on our futures platform has actually continued to stabilize,” said Alexia Theodorou, head of derivatives at Kraken. “After hitting a local low on October 6, the long/short ratio on Bitcoin perpetuals has returned to neutral territory.”
“Recent volatility has pushed derivatives activity on Kraken to record levels, but despite the prevailing bearish sentiment, our data suggests that many traders view the sell-off as overdone and are cautiously positioning for upside potential. While sentiment remains fragile, we see a more balanced market emerging after an initial wave of capitulation,” Theodorou added.
The feeling remains fragile
BTC’s sharp pullback from overnight highs above $113,000 marked the abrupt end of the recovery from the October 10 low and indicates how fragile sentiment remains heading into the latter part of October.
Perhaps the market is still digesting the consequences of the deleveraging shock of the previous month.
“The bulls have failed to push the market above recent highs, and we are seeing an active downtrend forming in the short term,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro.
“Bitcoin at $108,000 has fallen to its 200-day moving average again. The spring scenario of a prolonged consolidation around this line and a further breakout now looks like a case of hope for the bulls,” he added.
Major altcoins followed BTC lower, with ETH holding near $3,870 and SOL down 9% over the week. BNB and XRP saw minor gains after outperforming in previous sessions, while memecoins such as DOGE saw larger declines amid dwindling speculative flows.
“Strong intraday swings in Bitcoin, Ethereum and major altcoins reflect cautious market sentiment,” said Wenny Cai, co-founder and COO of SynFutures. “After yesterday’s brief rally, traders are once again reacting to macroeconomic signals such as rising bond yields, geopolitical uncertainty and low liquidity. In this type of environment, even small changes in risk appetite trigger outsized moves.”
Despite the red screens, data from Glassnode and ETF flow trackers suggests that structural demand has not collapsed. Spot ETF inflows remain stable, FX balances are near cycle lows and long-term holders continue to accumulate.
Traders now have their eyes on the Oct. 29 Fed meeting, with most anticipating a 25 basis point reduction in borrowing costs. The central bank cut rates by 25 basis points in September.
