Over the past 24 hours, more than $1.1 billion in crypto long positions have been liquidated—an even larger amount than during the previous market drop when Bitcoin fell below $60,000.
In two days, it’ll be the anniversary of last year’s October 11 crypto crash. That’s a date I’ll never forget.
How crazy was the market this time last year? Bitcoin kept hitting new highs, U.S. stocks were making new highs too, and everyone was hoping October would kick off another huge rally. It felt like you could make money with your eyes closed.
At the time, I’d already cut my positions by more than 50%. All I had left was some $SOL and $PEPE, and I was only staking spot holdings with low leverage.
Then a huge wick down on October 11 snapped me right back to reality.
My PEPE staking position got liquidated, and nearly a million was gone just like that. SOL was even crazier: its price came within $3 of my liquidation price, and somehow I escaped by the skin of my teeth.
That crash also wiped out a lot of the profits I’d made during the bull market.
After going through 3/12, I’d actually become pretty conservative. I mostly stayed away from altcoin futures, occasionally traded Bitcoin with low leverage, and at most used 0.5x leverage for altcoin staking and borrowing.
But even then, one wick down was all it took to get liquidated.
It took me a while to understand that the scariest thing in crypto has never been getting the direction wrong—it’s thinking your position is safe enough.
The market can wick down to prices you thought were impossible. A trade you thought was a sure thing can take months of profits away in a single night.
So now, whenever I see the market going crazy with FOMO, and everyone shouting “bull market” and “new highs,” I can’t help thinking of that wick on October 11 last year.
Staying in crypto for the long haul matters far more than making a big profit on any one trade.
In two days, it’ll be the anniversary of last year’s October 11 crypto crash. That’s a date I’ll never forget.
How crazy was the market this time last year? Bitcoin kept hitting new highs, U.S. stocks were making new highs too, and everyone was hoping October would kick off another huge rally. It felt like you could make money with your eyes closed.
At the time, I’d already cut my positions by more than 50%. All I had left was some $SOL and $PEPE, and I was only staking spot holdings with low leverage.
Then a huge wick down on October 11 snapped me right back to reality.
My PEPE staking position got liquidated, and nearly a million was gone just like that. SOL was even crazier: its price came within $3 of my liquidation price, and somehow I escaped by the skin of my teeth.
That crash also wiped out a lot of the profits I’d made during the bull market.
After going through 3/12, I’d actually become pretty conservative. I mostly stayed away from altcoin futures, occasionally traded Bitcoin with low leverage, and at most used 0.5x leverage for altcoin staking and borrowing.
But even then, one wick down was all it took to get liquidated.
It took me a while to understand that the scariest thing in crypto has never been getting the direction wrong—it’s thinking your position is safe enough.
The market can wick down to prices you thought were impossible. A trade you thought was a sure thing can take months of profits away in a single night.
So now, whenever I see the market going crazy with FOMO, and everyone shouting “bull market” and “new highs,” I can’t help thinking of that wick on October 11 last year.
Staying in crypto for the long haul matters far more than making a big profit on any one trade.