The cryptocurrency market is in freefall as of November 5, 2025, with over $150 billion erased from the total market cap in the past 24-48 hours alone, capping off a brutal month where more than $1 trillion has vanished since early October.
This deleveraging frenzy has liquidated $1.7 billion in leveraged positions, primarily longs, affecting hundreds of thousands of traders across exchanges like Binance, HTX, and Bybit.
Bitcoin (BTC) has plunged below $100,000 for the first time since July, hitting lows around $99,600, while Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) have shed 5-10% each in the latest cascade. This isn’t an isolated dip—it’s the culmination of a structural purge, where overleveraged positions collided with thinning liquidity, amplifying a modest sell-off into a full-blown rout.
Total crypto market cap now ~$2.02T, down from $2.17T peak on Nov 3. BTC alone accounts for ~$80B of the drop. Liquidations (24h) $1.7B 327,000+ traders rekt; $1.4B in longs vs. $300M in shorts. Peaks hit $1.85B intraday.
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BTC Price at $99,800 (-9.3%), broke $100K support; Z-score at 2.4 (oversold signal, seen only 6x in 10 years). ETH Price at $3,300 (-17.2%) Led altcoin bleed; $580M in ETH longs liquidated. SOL Price at $180 (-8.5%) $156M liquidated; DeFi contagion hit hard.
ETF Outflows; $1.34B (BTC) + $138M (ETH) 5 straight days of redemptions; spot demand evaporated. Fear & Greed Index 20 (Extreme Fear) 6th straight day in fear zone; sentiment at bear market lows.
What Triggered the Cascade?
Leverage Overload: Open interest (OI) ballooned to record highs in perps while spot trading lagged. Positive funding rates lured in “up only” crowds, but when BTC cracked $104K support on Nov 4, it sparked a domino effect—$1.1B liquidated yesterday alone forced more stops, creating a self-fulfilling spiral.
This echoes the $19B mega-wipeout on Oct 10 Trump’s China tariff threat, but today’s is more insidious: DeFi bad debt from Stream Finance’s $93M implosion spread $285M contagion to protocols like Morpho and Euler. Hawkish Fed signals and sticky inflation spooked risk assets.
Equities wobbled, prompting de-risking—crypto, as the beta king, got slashed first. China’s surprise tariff suspension on U.S. goods offered brief relief, but it wasn’t enough to stem ETF outflows or the $16B short pileup betting sub-$95K BTC by month-end.
DeFi & Protocol Cracks: Balancer’s $128M exploit and Berachain’s $116M drain halted chains and eroded trust. Privacy coins like DASH (+112%) and ZEC (+35%) pumped as “flight to safety” trades, but majors like ENA (-29%) and IP (-28%) got dumped on unlocks amid zero bids.
Sentiment on X: Panic, Capitulation, and Contrarian CallsX (formerly Twitter) is a warzone of memes, breakdowns, and bottom-fishing. Traders are calling this “max pain” at $72K BTC, but history shows extreme fear often marks local bottoms (e.g., 2018 winter, 2022 FTX collapse). Bearish Vibes: “The market broke me… I’m out”.
Peter Schiff predicts dot-com-level losses, but math says crypto’s $3.5T cap can’t match 2000’s $5T wipeout. A Binance insider flipped long on BTC/ETH/SOL post-crash— “NEVER WRONG!” (@CryptoHunt47045). $8B in shorts could squeeze if BTC hits $113K.
Analysts like @shanaka86 frame it as “leverage purge, not thesis funeral”: Wait for flat funding, 20-30% OI drop, and spot leadership. Spot > leverage; track stablecoin inflows and order books. “Volatility is the tax for being early. Leverage is the interest”.
This feels like the final exhale of October’s red storm—the largest monthly loss since 2018. But crypto’s resilient: Adoption (e.g., stablecoin volumes at $19.4B YTD and tech AI narratives pumping ICP +61% are intact. Trump’s rumored Miami announcement could jolt sentiment if it’s pro-crypto.
Short-term: More pain to $95K BTC if jobs data disappoints Friday. Long-term: Cleansed markets rebound hard—post-purge rallies averaged 50%+ historically.