According to a CryptoQuant report, Ethereum has just experienced the largest Open Interest (OI) purge in its history, following a cascade of liquidations across crypto markets triggered by President Trump’s surprise tariff announcement against China.
Within 24 hours on October 10, Ethereum’s Open Interest, the total value of active futures contracts, plunged from $28 billion to $19 billion, marking a record single-day drop. The collapse effectively erased weeks of leveraged positioning, leaving OI now 50% below its all-time high of $34 billion, reached in late August.
Data shows that the most severe liquidations were concentrated on Binance, where roughly $3.4 billion in positions were wiped out in October alone. Gate.io followed with $1.77 billion, and Bybit saw $1.6 billion in losses.
Analysts say the scale of these liquidations underscores how overleveraged the market had become, with speculative longs building up through September amid hopes of ETF-driven inflows.
The selloff, amplified by panic around new U.S.-China trade tensions, sparked a “market-wide deleveraging” that also spilled into Bitcoin and major altcoins. Ethereum dropped briefly below $3,500 before recovering to around $3,780 at the time of writing.
Despite the shock, many analysts view this purge as a healthy reset, similar to the leverage cleanouts seen before major bull runs in past cycles. By flushing excessive risk out of the system, the market may now be better positioned for more sustainable growth once volatility stabilizes.
As painful as it was, this historic Ethereum liquidation event could mark the start of a new accumulation phase, one that rewards disciplined holders over overextended speculators.
