TL;DR
- Crypto liquidations over the last 24 hours exceeded $698M, with $645M from long positions and only $49M from shorts.
- Long squeezes intensified in October around macro events, Ethereum accumulated $236M in liquidations and Bitcoin $186M.
- BTC’s funding rate dropped from 7% to below 1%, a signal that the futures market is no longer overheated.
The crypto market is going through one of the most aggressive liquidation streaks of the quarter. Over the last 24 hours, forced losses totaled $698 million, according to data from CoinGlass, with a markedly asymmetric distribution: $645 million corresponded to leveraged long positions and just $49 million to short positions. The numbers confirm that long squeezes — that is, the systematic hunting of leveraged bullish positions — dominate October’s market dynamics.
The figures recorded today have repeated themselves several times in recent days. On Friday, October 2, coinciding with a jobs report weaker than expected, the market registered $580 million in liquidations, with bulls absorbing $330 million of that total. On September 28, the pattern repeated: longs lost more than $415 million versus $110 million for shorts. The trend is consistent.
The Crypto Market Under the Macro Microscope
The macroeconomic context largely explains the pressure on leveraged crypto traders. Following the 30-year Treasury bond auction on October 8, the next relevant event is the CPI inflation report on October 14, which precedes the Federal Reserve‘s rate decision scheduled for the 28th of this month. Market consensus currently assigns a 78% probability to a pause in the rate cycle, though there is uncertainty over whether that pause will carry a hawkish or dovish bias.
In that context, funding rates have fallen considerably. Bitcoin‘s dropped from 7% to below 1%, while Ethereum‘s retreated to 10%. The reduction of leverage accumulated during the third-quarter recovery limits the risk of catastrophic cascades, but does not eliminate the possibility of new purges toward liquidity zones at $83,000 and $83,100.
The Lost Uptober?
Despite the short-term noise, the price structure of BTC remains above the May high at $82,000 and the 50-week moving average, which preserves the long-term bullish bias. Only a decisive break below $82,000 would shift the outlook in favor of sellers. The seasonal rally that the crypto market dubbed “Uptober” has yet to consolidate.
