Bitcoin Falls Below $108K Amid $320M Liquidations as Excess Leverage Gets Flushed Out

Bitcoin was trading below $108,000 at 9:20 a.m. UTC as $320 million in liquidations and spot crypto ETF outflows hit a market down 3.2%.

BTC was trading at $107,779 during the European morning, 2.8% lower in the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Ether $ETH$3,876.90 and solana SOL$185.15 have both fallen more than 3.5%, while numerous other altcoins nursed losses in excess of 4%.

The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which offers a weighted measure of the digital asset market, is about 3.5% lower.

CoinGlass data shows 122,919 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, totaling $320.32 million, including a single $2.98 million $ETH-USDT order on Binance.

Flows started the week softer: U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs saw a $40.4 million net outflow Monday, Oct. 20, including $100.7 million from BlackRock’s IBIT, according to Farside Investors.

Sentiment sat in “Fear” at 34 on the Crypto Fear & Greed Index.

Bloomberg reported gold at $4,270 an ounce, a drop of 1.97% today.

Glassnode said open interest (OI) fell about 30%, flushing excess leverage and that funding is near neutral, leaving the market less vulnerable to another liquidation cascade.

OI is the number of outstanding futures and perpetual contracts; when it drops sharply, it usually means leverage has been closed out. Funding is the fee longs or shorts pay to keep perpetual positions open; when it moves toward neutral, it signals neither side is paying a premium, so positioning is more balanced.

In practice, less leverage and near-neutral funding can reduce the odds of another forced-selling cascade, even if price action stays choppy.

Analyst Michaël van de Poppe said on X that bitcoin’s monthly chart is moving sideways — no clear peak or bottom — before a bigger move higher. In plain terms, he sees this phase as a pause long enough to shake out excess leverage while price holds a broad range, with the next strong advance more likely once that base-building is done.