Bitcoin’s Fragile Rebound Follows $20 Billion Leverage Wipeout

Bitcoin’s modest recovery after Friday’s record crypto crash has done little to ease the fallout from over $20 billion purge of leveraged bets that left parts of the market incapacitated. The unprecedented washout erased months of speculative build-up and forced some funds out entirely, traders say.

Open interest in Bitcoin futures dropped to about $70 billion from roughly $94 billion across major exchanges, data compiled by Coinglass show — the steepest single-day fall in more than two years. The sharp contraction underscores how quickly risk can unwind in a market still governed by automatic margin calls and fragmented liquidity.