Historically, such significant reductions in open interest often signal market bottoms, similar to past events like the COVID crash, China's mining ban, and FTX collapse, suggesting the market may be stabilizing or bottoming out.

On October 12, 2025, Bitcoin's open interest plummeted from approximately $70 billion to around $58 billion, with futures positions decreasing from 560,000 BTC to 481,000 BTC, marking a significant market deleveraging.

This event was the largest single-day deleveraging in crypto history, wiping out over $12 billion in futures positions, mainly driven by crypto-native traders rather than traditional institutions.

The most substantial decline in open interest occurred on Binance, where futures OI fell from $16 billion to $12 billion, indicating that the deleveraging was concentrated within the crypto-native trading ecosystem.

Meanwhile, institutional-focused venues like CME remained stable, with Bitcoin futures showing resilience during the turmoil, while altcoins such as Solana and Ripple saw notable increases in futures trading volumes, hinting at a shift towards altcoins amid Bitcoin's correction.

Despite a 17.5% decline in September trading volumes across spot and derivatives markets, open interest in derivatives reached record highs of $230 billion, reflecting sustained investor interest amid reduced trading activity.

This deleveraging event is only second to the March 2020 COVID crash in Bitcoin history, occurring when Bitcoin was valued at around $5,000, compared to $122,000 at the time of the recent event.