On the night of October 10 (U.S. time), the crypto market was shaken hard. It wasn’t just the long red candles on the price charts. The entire community fell silent after shocking news broke: a well-known Ukrainian trading influencer, who had inspired thousands of retail investors, reportedly took his own life after losing everything in the sudden market crash.
A Historic Meltdown
The early October crash is already being called one of the darkest nights in crypto history. Within just 24 hours, a series of shocking records were set:
- Bitcoin plunged nearly 13% in just one hour.
- Many altcoins dropped more than 30%.
- Over 1.6 million accounts were liquidated.
- More than $19 billion in trading positions were wiped out, including nearly $17 billion in long positions.
- About $500 billion in total market capitalization vanished.
Source: IUX
This was the largest liquidation event ever recorded in crypto, surpassing the historic crashes of 2021:
- April 18, 2021: China signaled a major crypto crackdown, especially on anti–money laundering measures.
- May 19, 2021: Elon Musk and Tesla suddenly announced they would stop accepting Bitcoin payments.
While those 2021 events shook the market, the October 2025 crash showed how destructive leverage can be in a much bigger and more liquid market with far more participants.
Source: coinglass
Leverage, A Double-Edged Sword
Leverage isn’t inherently bad. It amplifies profits and allows traders to use their capital more efficiently. But in a highly volatile market like crypto, it can also act like a time bomb.
When prices drop sharply, leveraged positions get liquidated → exchanges force-sell collateral → this pushes prices down further → more liquidations are triggered → a deadly spiral begins.
Unlike in traditional markets, many crypto investors even borrow money to buy tokens, making the crash spread faster and deeper.
Leverage doesn’t just take away money. It takes away hope and sometimes, lives. The story of the Ukrainian trading influencer is just one of many tragedies in this market.
Lessons Written in Tears
After every big crash, what matters most is not how much Bitcoin fell but what survivors learned:
- Leverage is not a shortcut to wealth. It’s a test of risk management.
- Lowering leverage, setting stop losses, and protecting capital is not weakness, it’s survival.
- Never borrow money to trade. You can earn money again, but you only have one life.
The crypto market can offer life-changing opportunities but it can also take everything in one night. In a storm, the winners are not those with the biggest positions, but those who survive the longest.
A Longer-Term View
Historical weekly data shows that after each major bull run, Bitcoin typically needs around 189–245 days to break above its previous peak in a sustainable way. This means today’s sharp and sudden breakouts may simply be liquidity traps, moments where leveraged positions are wiped out before the market finds its real balance.
If not managed properly, leverage can turn financial freedom dreams into nightmares. In this game, protecting yourself matters more than protecting a trade.
