Bitcoins two-way price action is pushing both leveraged bullish and bearish plays, highlighting challenging market conditions for traders.
In the past 24 hours, BTC’s price has traded back and forth between $107,000 and $113,000, wiping out about $600 million in market-wide bullish and bearish futures bets. The liquidation wave hit as traders reduced leverage across major exchanges, with data from CoinGlass showing about $355 million in long positions and $301 million in shorts closed over 24 hours.
Bitcoin accounted for the bulk of the damage at more than $340 million, followed by ether to 200 million dollars. Solana , and rounded out top losers who each saw tens of millions in forced liquidations.
Such flushes are common after large price swings. Leveraged positions on perpetual futures exchanges are automatically closed when traders’ margin levels fall below maintenance thresholds, often causing cascading price movements when positions are sold for thin liquidity.
Large liquidations serve as critical indicators of short-term turning points in market sentiment.
“Despite Bitcoin’s sharp pullback 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 shifted back towards neutral territory.”
“Recent volatility pushed derivatives activity on the Kraken to record levels, but despite the prevailing bearish sentiment, our data suggests that many traders see the sell-off as overdone and are cautiously positioning for potential upside. Although sentiment remains fragile, we see a more balanced market emerging after an initial wave of added capitulation,” says Theodorou.
The feeling remains fragile
BTC’s sharp pullback from overnight highs above $113,000 marked an abrupt end to the recovery from the October 10 lows and is a sign of how fragile sentiment remains heading into the latter part of October.
Perhaps the market is still digesting the fallout from the deleveraging shock earlier this month.
“The bulls failed to push the market above the recent highs and we see the formation of an active short-term downtrend,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro.
“Bitcoin at $108K has fallen back to its 200-day moving average. The spring scenario of extended consolidation around this line and a further breakout now looks like the hopeful case for bulls,” he added.
Major altcoins have tracked BTC lower, with ETH holding close to $3,870 and SOL down 9% for the week. BNB and XRP posted smaller gains after outperforming in earlier sessions, while memecoins such as DOGE saw sharper moves amid thinning speculative flows.
“The sharp intraday swings across 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 back to reacting to macro signals like rising bond yields, geopolitical uncertainty and thin liquidity. In this kind of environment, even small changes in risk appetite trigger big moves.”
Despite the red screens, data from Glassnode and ETF flow trackers suggest that structural demand has not collapsed. Spot ETF inflows remain steady, currency balances are near cycle lows and long-term holders continue to accumulate.
Traders are now eyeing the Fed meeting on October 29, where most expect a 25 basis point cut in borrowing costs. The central bank reduced the interest rate by 25 bps in September.
