One Year After the $19 Billion Crash, the Crypto Market Has Changed

One year after a record $19 billion of leveraged crypto bets were wiped out in a single day, the market looks very different, Bloomberg reports. Traders are using less leverage, exchanges have changed how they handle liquidations, and money is flowing into new types of products.

Bitcoin, however, has not fully recovered. Even after a recent rally pushed it back above $80,000, it remains more than 30% below its record high.

Less leverage, a different market

Open interest in Bitcoin-linked perpetual futures stood at about $45 billion a year ago, according to CryptoQuant data cited by Bloomberg. It more than halved in the six months after the crash and is still well below its peak. Some exchanges have also strengthened their liquidation systems and now offer assets that move less in step with crypto.

“For the most part, the market that crashed on 10/10 doesn’t really exist anymore,” Lucas Tcheyan, vice president of research at Galaxy Digital, wrote. Not everyone is reassured: Julia Zhou, president of market maker Caladan, warned that “the market remains highly fragmented, and liquidity can still deteriorate rapidly.”

Where the money is going

One of the biggest shifts is the rise of perpetual futures tied to real-world assets such as stocks and commodities. Open interest in these contracts was close to zero a year ago and now exceeds $17 billion, according to DefiLlama, with the offshore exchange Hyperliquid driving much of the growth. Prediction markets are also attracting traders.

Looking ahead, QCP Capital expects Bitcoin to trade between $80,000 and $90,000 in the fourth quarter and says the market needs a major catalyst to break out. Galaxy Digital notes that US regulators are moving ahead with collateral and margin guidelines, even after broader crypto legislation stalled in September.

Sources

1. Bloomberg (David Pan) October 10, 2026