Crypto in October 2025: Record High, Then the Largest Crash in History
2025-11-01
"Uptober" started exactly to script -- a fresh Bitcoin record and a $4.27 trillion total market cap -- and then delivered the single most violent deleveraging event crypto has ever seen. Here is how the month broke.
The Record High
On October 6, Bitcoin hit an all-time high near $126,200, with total crypto market cap peaking around $4.27 trillion. Record ETF inflows -- including a ~$5.95 billion single-week haul into crypto products -- and a government-shutdown hedge narrative powered the move. It would prove to be the cycle top.
October 10-11: The Largest Liquidation Ever
On Friday evening, October 10, Trump posted on Truth Social announcing 100% tariffs on Chinese imports in response to China's rare-earth export curbs. The over-leveraged market detonated. Roughly $19 billion was liquidated in about 24 hours -- the largest such event in crypto history -- wiping out around 1.6 million traders, the vast majority of them longs. Bitcoin fell from ~$122,500 to ~$104,800 intraday, Solana briefly dropped 40%, and some small caps fell 70-80%. A single minute saw $3.21 billion liquidated. Notably, the $19 billion figure is a reported floor -- some analysts, including exchange insiders, argued the true total was closer to $30-40 billion once CEX underreporting is accounted for.
Spot Solana ETF Arrives
Amid the chaos, the product pipeline kept delivering. Around October 28, Bitwise launched BSOL, the first US spot Solana ETF (with staking), which gathered over $400 million in assets within about three weeks. Litecoin and Hedera spot products launched the same week via new generic listing standards -- a workaround needed because the US government shutdown that began October 1 had frozen normal SEC reviews.
The Fed Cuts Again
On October 29, the Fed cut another 25 basis points to 3.75-4.00% and said it would end quantitative tightening on December 1. But Powell called a December cut "not a foregone conclusion," a hawkish surprise that briefly pushed Bitcoin to ~$109k during the press conference.
The Takeaway
October was the year's defining risk lesson: a euphoric, heavily leveraged market is fragile, and a single headline can trigger a cascade no amount of conviction can withstand. Bitcoin limped to ~$110k by month-end, down ~4%. Managing leverage and respecting liquidation dynamics is the whole game in moments like this -- exactly what our risk-aware models are built for. See them on the dashboard.