Crypto’s October 10 -spring looks more like a stress test than a regime shift, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan wrote in his memo October 14.
Hougan connects the sale to a late-Friday post from President Trump, threatening 100% duty on Chinese goods; With shares closed, he wrote, drew merchant reaction to the always open crypto market. As the prices slipped, he said, greatly geared positions were liquidated in order and elaborated on the move.
At his figures, approx. $ 20 billion in leverage wiped out – the biggest such slack with Crypto’s history – with Bitcoin down as much as 15%before rebuilding nearly $ 115,000 by Monday. Some majors fell further intraday, including sun, which he said briefly fell approx. 40%.
From there, Hougan focused on some bread. He wrote that channel checks across custodians and liquidity providers showed losses, but no collapses in major players such as hedge funds or prominent market producers – one of the reasons he believes rebound was fast.
Then he assessed the market’s “plumbing.” According to the note, decentralized venues including uniswap, hyperliquid and aave normal operations through volatility, while some centralized platforms stumbled; Hougan said Binance later repaid traders with almost $ 400 million. Overall, he argued, Crypto’s infrastructure performed as well as – if not better than – traditional markets perhaps under similar stress.
Investor behavior was the last story. Hougan wrote that his inbox remained unusually quiet; Media and social feeds were lively, but institutional clients sat largely on their hands. In his view, the tranquility of the odds of a cascading reduced relax and helped the market reset quickly when the political tone cooled.
Because none of Crypto’s foundations changed-in violation of security, no core technology failure and no deterioration of the legislative background-concluding Hougan that the episode does not change the long-term path.
He points to the same structural drivers that he has emphasized throughout the year: clearer rules, rising institutional assignments, stablecoins’ growing role in payments and accelerating tokenization of traditional assets.
Year to date, he wrote, Bitcoin has risen 21%and the Bitvise 10 large Cap Crypto index has increased by 22%.
In the short term, he expects thinner liquidity as market producers re -group – conditions that can exaggerate movements in both directions – before the attention returns to basic elements.
