3 Deadly Mistakes That Cost Crypto Traders $155 Billion in 2025
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The year 2025 will be remembered as the moment crypto futures trading stopped being a theoretical risk and became a measurable systemic failure. By year’s end, more than $154 billion in forced liquidations had been recorded across perpetual futures markets, according to aggregated data from Coinglass, translating to an average of $400–500 million in daily losses. What unfolded across centralized and decentralized derivatives venues was not a single black swan event, but a slow-motion structural unwind. Why Perpetual Futures Became Liquidation Engines in 2025 The scale was unprecedented, with Coinglass’ 2025 crypto derivatives market annual report showing $154.64 billion in total liquidations for the past year. Total Liquidations in 2025. Source: Coinglass Yet the mechanics behind the losses were neither new nor unpredictable. Throughout the year, leverage ratios increased, funding rates issued persistent warnings, and exchange-level risk mechanisms proved to be deeply flawed under stress. Sponsored Sponsored Retail traders, drawn in by the promise of amplified gains, absorbed the bulk of the damage. The breaking point arrived on October 10–11, when a violent market reversal liquidated over $19 billion in positions within 24 hours, the largest single liquidation event in crypto history. Long positions were disproportionately affected, accounting for an estimated 80–90% of liquidations, as cascading margin calls overwhelmed order books and insurance funds alike. Drawing from on-chain analytics, derivatives data, and real-time trader commentary on Twitter (now X), three core mistakes stand out. Each contributed directly to the magnitude of losses witnessed in 2025, and each carries critical lessons for 2026. Mistake 1: Over-Reliance on Extreme Leverage Leverage was the primary accelerant behind 2025’s liquidation crisis and arguably the leading crypto futures trading mistake. While futures markets are designed to enhance capital efficiency, the scale of leverage deployed throughout the year crossed from strategic to destabilizing. CryptoQuant data indicates…
Filed under: News - @ January 1, 2026 5:28 pm