Crypto Market Rebounds After $20B Liquidation Wave

The crypto market’s rebound showed significant strength but uneven distribution across major digital assets. Bitcoin climbed more than 3% in 24 hours to trade around $115,342 after sinking toward $105,000 during the weekend sell-off. Ethereum demonstrated even stronger recovery momentum, rising 9% to $4,180 following its weekend drop to nearly $3,500.

Among the top 10 digital assets, BNB led the charge with a sharp 16.85% jump to a new all-time high, while Dogecoin and Cardano each gained over 10%. The recovery pattern revealed clear winners and laggards, with Tron posting only a modest 2.5% increase despite the broader market upturn. This uneven performance suggests that investor confidence is returning selectively rather than uniformly across the cryptocurrency spectrum.

Despite the price rebound, the crypto market continued to experience significant liquidation pressure. Nearly 190,000 traders faced liquidations in the past 24 hours, with total losses exceeding $626 million. The most significant single liquidation involved an ETH-USD position worth $7 million on Binance, highlighting the continued vulnerability of leveraged positions even during recovery periods.

According to CoinGlass data, short sellers absorbed most of the damage, losing roughly $418 million as prices reversed upward, while long traders forfeited another $207 million as volatility persisted. This distribution of losses reflects the whipsaw nature of the market recovery, where rapid price movements caught both bullish and bearish positions off guard.

Timothy Misir, head of research at BRN, explained to CryptoSlate that the market rebound reflects a blend of short-covering and selective accumulation. According to him: ‘Large holders are buying opportunistically while many retail players remain sidelined. That said, the market’s structural health still hinges on steady spot demand, ETFs, treasuries and corporate purchases and time for liquidity to normalize. A V-shaped recovery is possible; a durable rally requires repeated absorption of selling at progressively higher prices.’

While spot markets showed recovery, derivatives markets told a more cautious story. Nick Forster, the founder of the options trading platform Derive.xyz, cautioned that volatility in Bitcoin and Ethereum options has spiked following last week’s shocking market collapse. According to him, this signals an expectation of a volatile few weeks ahead because the recent sell-off disrupted normal volatility patterns, and traders have begun hedging aggressively.

Forster noted that some investors are beginning to bear the thought that Bitcoin could drop below $100,000 while ETH traders are more bearish, with ‘substantial buying of $2,600 puts for December.’ He elaborated: ‘In BTC options, we saw heavy buying of $115,000 and $95,000 puts for the October 31 expiry, alongside a sharp reversal from call buying to call selling at the $125,000 strike (October 17 expiry), signaling a bearish near-term outlook…For ETH, traders focused on the October 31 $4,000 and October 17 $3,6000 strikes, while substantial buying of $2,600 puts for December 26 expiry reflected growing bearish sentiment through year-end.’

This options activity reveals that professional traders are positioning for continued turbulence, with put buying at key support levels indicating concerns about further downside risk. The concentration of bearish bets in December expirations suggests that market participants anticipate volatility could persist through the end of the year, creating a cautious backdrop despite the current price recovery.