Just been digging into why the crypto market crashed so hard that day. It wasn't really one big catalyst - more like a perfect storm of forced selling and leverage unwinding. Bitcoin dropped below $75K and that triggered a cascade of liquidations. In just 24 hours, roughly $237 million worth of BTC long positions got wiped out. When you zoom out, it's even crazier - the weekly liquidations hit $2.16 billion, and over the month it was more than $4.4 billion. That's not a one-day thing, that's weeks of deleveraging finally breaking through.

Once Bitcoin started falling, all those liquidated longs turned into market sells, pushing it lower and triggering even more liquidations. Since Bitcoin dominates derivatives trading, the pressure spilled everywhere. I was watching open interest in perpetual futures drop about 4.4% that day alone, which wiped out roughly $26 billion in exposure. Over the whole month, total derivatives open interest was down around 34%, so this was part of a much bigger unwinding.

There was also nervousness around large holders taking massive unrealized losses, and the broader market had that classic risk-off vibe - stocks weakening in Europe, monetary policy concerns everywhere. For why the crypto market is crashing specifically, it all came down to leverage clearing out. The key was whether Bitcoin could hold above $75K. If it broke below that, the next support would be $70K. Until liquidations slowed and Bitcoin stabilized, rebounds were just going to get crushed. Pretty textbook deleveraging cycle.