Bitcoin Derivatives Market Hit Hard With Massive Sweep In Open Interest – Here’s What To Know

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Bitcoin, the flagship digital asset, took a big hit during the recent massive liquidation that tumbled the broader cryptocurrency market over the weekend. While the price of BTC dropped sharply, losing key support levels, its futures open interest also witnessed a notable bearish activity.

Unprecedented Shakeup In Bitcoin Derivatives Market

The crypto market is gradually recovering from the recent wave of liquidation, considered the largest one yet. During the massive liquidation, Bitcoin’s derivatives market has experienced one of its most dramatic shakeups in history.

In the X post, Glassnode, a financial and on-chain data analytics platform, revealed that its futures open interest saw the largest single-day wipeout on record. Within hours, billions of dollars in leveraged positions were liquidated, causing exchanges to tremble and traders to frantically reassess their positions.

Data from the on-chain platform shows that more than $11 billion in positions were cleared during the largest liquidation event in crypto history. The historic flush in futures open interest could be a turning point for institutional and retail players negotiating this new stage of market volatility.

According to the platform, the magnitude of this deleveraging indicates the speed at which excessive leverage can unravel in times of volatility. This massive wipeout has triggered a resurgence of debate over market leverage, volatility, and the wider effects for the current price trajectory of Bitcoin.

Spot Trading Volume On BTC And Altcoins

Despite the severity of the liquidation within the week, the market still points to bullish potential based on spot trading volumes on Bitcoin and altcoins. Darkfost, a market expert and author, stated that the intensity of the market movement on October 10th might have a positive effect in the medium term.

According to the on-chain expert, a huge number of futures positions, leveraged borrowing, and other margin-based bets were destroyed in this avalanche of liquidation. As a result, many investors lost part of their funds during this event. 

Darkfost highlighted that this is a stark reminder that any leveraged position carries risk, regardless of how small the leverage appears despite the seeming smallness of leverage. However, by bringing investors’ focus back to the spot market, this liquidation event may also have a positive impact on the market.

Presently, spot trading volumes on altcoins experienced a surge as liquidation rocked the market, reaching around $20 billion. Additionally, BTC spot volume doubled, validating the newfound interest in non-leverage trading. 

Looking ahead, Darkfost predicts a possible stronger preference for the spot market. Such development would aid the crypto market in building a more sustainable and resilient trend as opposed to leveraged positions that may be wiped out at any time.

At the time of writing, BTC’s price was trading at $115,165, demonstrating a more than 3% increase in the last 24 hours. Its trading volume has followed this gradual increase by rising nearly 5% in the past day.

Featured image from Getty Images, chart from Tradingview.com

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