Roughly $637 million in leveraged liquidations swept across Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP around December 1, 2025, amplifying an ongoing multi-month de-risking phase marked by ETF outflows, macro shocks and rapid cross-market deleveraging.
Liquidations accelerated in a cascading, multi-wave downturn
The initial wipeout was followed by a $524 million liquidation event within days, and earlier on November 3 nearly $1.16 billion evaporated in 24 hours, with flash crashes on October 10 and other sessions triggering far larger single-hour liquidations of about $19 billion and almost $7 billion.
In this context, liquidation refers to the forced closure of leveraged positions when margin requirements break, converting unrealized losses into compulsory selling.
Bitcoin led the decline, falling from an early-October peak near $126,000 to below $81,000 by November 24, with key prints including ~$105,699 (Nov 3), ~$103,600 (Oct 18) and a drop beneath ~$85,653 on Dec 1 before touching a local ~$80,500 low on Nov 21.
Ethereum mirrored the retracement, sliding from its August high of $4,955 to about $3,679 on Oct 18 and roughly $2,807 by Dec 1, with some late-November references approaching the $2,700 range.
XRP saw concentrated sell-pressure, falling to $1.91 on Nov 21 after an 8.72% daily drop from $2.13, following a 7% decline to $2.33 (Nov 3) and repeated 6–10% drawdowns into early December.
Institutional behavior intensified downside momentum: spot Bitcoin ETFs saw roughly $3.55B exit in November while Ethereum ETFs lost around $1.42B, alongside a shrinking stablecoin supply signaling capital exiting the ecosystem rather than rotating within it.
Macro stress compounded sentiment — U.S. banking sector losses, litigation involving another lender, and a hawkish Dec 1 comment from the Bank of Japan revived yen carry-trade unwind fears, while traders watched upcoming U.S. economic data and Federal Reserve remarks as volatility catalysts.
Market structure amplified the damage as high leverage, thin liquidity and automated liquidations cascaded into forced selling.
On-chain activity highlighted a ~200M XRP offload near $400M value over 48 hours and an anonymous ~24,000 BTC sale, moves that intensified order-book stress.
New ETF listings provided only limited relief — one XRP product saw ~$22M volume and ~$105M in inflows, but these were insufficient to reverse systemic deleveraging. Risk perception worsened as a DeFi protocol incident erased ~$9M, adding caution to an already fragile market.
The late-2025 drawdown revealed how leverage concentration, institutional outflows and macro shocks can merge into sudden liquidity collapse across BTC, ETH and XRP, with traders now watching near-term macro prints and Fed communications as the next inflection points for risk appetite.
