{"id":89835,"date":"2025-10-13T12:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T09:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=89835"},"modified":"2025-10-13T12:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T09:19:06","slug":"black-saturday-11-october-what-happened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/black-saturday-11-october-what-happened\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Saturday, 11 October: what happened?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 11 October, liquidations in the crypto market surged past<\/a> $19bn, the largest on record. Over 24 hours, the capitalisation of digital assets fell by almost $660bn, according to CoinGecko<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bitcoin fell below $111,000, recording for the first time a daily candle at $20,000. On Binance, the price briefly dipped to $102,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Hourly chart of BTC\/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView<\/a>.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ethereum dropped to $3,700. Many altcoins suffered double-digit losses\u2014among the top ten by market value, XRP<\/a>, Solana<\/a> and Dogecoin<\/a> fared worst, each down by roughly 20%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index<\/a> fell to 24, signalling \u201cextreme fear\u201d on the market. At the time of writing it had recovered to 38.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Source: Alternative.me<\/a>.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Analysts linked<\/a> the panic to a post by US president Donald Trump on the social network Truth Social. In a 10 October post he said<\/a> 100% tariffs on Chinese imports could be introduced from 1 November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stock markets reacted first: the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indices fell by 3.5%<\/a> and 2.7%<\/a> respectively. The negativity then spilled over into crypto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Problems at Binance<\/h2>\n

More than 1.6m traders were liquidated in the sell-off, most of them on Binance and Hyperliquid<\/a>. Some market participants suggested that mass position closures on the largest CEX<\/span> were a \u201cco-ordinated attack\u201d, which triggered the broad fall in crypto prices.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Journalist Colin Wu was among the first to note<\/a> this. He said attackers exploited a vulnerability in the Unified Account<\/span> feature, which allows users to post the stablecoin<\/a> USDe as collateral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike other platforms, Binance valued such assets not by market data from oracles<\/a> but by its own order book. The exchange was aware of this\u2014a fix was scheduled for 14 October.<\/p>\n

Attackers took advantage of the window, dumping $90m of USDe onto the market. The \u201cstablecoin\u201d temporarily lost its US dollar peg, triggering $1bn in liquidations. The depeg also hit bnSOL and wBETH.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"image\"
Hourly chart of USDe\/USDT on Binance. Source: TradingView<\/a>.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Minutes before Trump\u2019s message, the attackers also allegedly opened<\/a> short positions in bitcoin and Ethereum on Hyperliquid. This netted them $192m in profit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amid the incident, Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek urged<\/a> regulators to conduct thorough reviews of crypto exchanges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Binance acknowledged that some liquidations were tied to the temporary loss of pegs in USDe, bnSOL and wBETH, and assured users the exchange would cover losses caused by it. On 13 October, the platform reported<\/a> $283m in compensation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Representatives of the platform deny any link between the depeg and the market crash. Analysts also dismiss theories of a co-ordinated attack. Wu cited<\/a> observations by analyst Jian Zhu\u2019er, who stressed that USDe\u2019s loss of its dollar peg came after the price collapse. He pointed to poor wBETH liquidity as the root cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Community views\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Selini Capital\u2019s founder, Jordi Alexander, argued that the sell-off was driven by the market\u2019s accumulated \u201cfragility\u201d. He believes that amid FOMO<\/span> participants forgot about risks.<\/p>\n

\n

Lot of crypto folks asking me “What happened?”\u2026<\/p>\n

It’s probably time to dust off the Taleb book ‘Antifragile’.<\/p>\n

The amount of Open Interest that has been taken off in one day is unreal. 15B -> 6B on hyperliquid alone, the real total number must be insane!<\/p>\n

People always want a\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/Au0UmqPMnh<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jordi Alexander (@gametheorizing) October 11, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n