Over $100B wiped from crypto market in less than three days

Crypto markets don’t need much of a push to fall hard. This time, they got a shove.

In the span of roughly three days, the total crypto market capitalization shed over $100 billion. The selloff, concentrated around September 24, saw approximately $150 billion erased in a single 24-hour window. Zoom out to the ten-day stretch between September 18 and 28, and the damage climbs to an estimated $300 billion.

Bitcoin fell to around $84,000. Ethereum slid into the $2,670 to $2,687 range. Altcoins, as they tend to do when the tide goes out, fared even worse on a percentage basis.

What actually caused this

The 10-year US Treasury yield pushed above 5%, a level that historically makes risk assets squirm. Higher yields mean safer alternatives are suddenly more attractive, and capital that was parked in speculative positions starts looking for the exit.

Geopolitical unease added fuel. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s speech at the United Nations, followed by a US delegation walkout, rattled markets already sitting on edge. Oil prices surged in parallel, reinforcing a broader risk-off mood that spread across asset classes.

Then came the cascade. With open interest in perpetual futures running high and liquidity relatively thin, it didn’t take much to trigger automated liquidations at scale. Roughly $450 million in long positions were liquidated on the day of the crash. Once forced selling starts, it feeds on itself: prices fall, more positions hit their thresholds, more selling follows.

Cumulative liquidations across the full ten-day period reached $7.3 billion.

A recurring problem, not a one-off shock

Similar episodes, each erasing $100 billion or more in a single day, occurred multiple times throughout 2025. The triggers varied: economic policy shifts, macro data surprises, geopolitical flare-ups. But the mechanism was always roughly the same. High leverage, thin liquidity, and a market conditioned to treat every rally as an invitation to add more risk.

Chainalysis data from the period offered a counterintuitive note: on-chain transaction activity remained relatively steady even as prices cratered. That divergence matters. It suggests the actual utility layer of crypto, real transfers, protocol usage, economic activity on-chain, held up even when the speculative trading layer was in freefall.

What traders and investors are watching now

The high open interest in perpetual futures markets heading into the crash indicated that traders were broadly positioned for continued upside. That positioning unwound fast. Until open interest resets to healthier levels and yield pressures ease, the market remains exposed to the same kind of shock it just absorbed.

Crypto’s correlation with broader macro conditions, particularly US rate policy and global risk sentiment, has only deepened over recent years. A market that once moved on Bitcoin-specific news now moves in lockstep with 10-year Treasury auctions and OPEC statements.

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