#Gate广场万圣节 October 11: How I Survived

After 3/12 and 5/19, crypto had another day to remember: October 11 last year.

That night, BTC had just hit a new all-time high of $126k this week. I was holding a 50x long position, thinking I’d hold it for one more night and then take profit. Then a message hit in the early hours: tariffs were back. A post went up at 20:50, and within an hour, Bitcoin plunged straight from $120k to $105k. The entire market saw $19.3 billion in liquidations, 1.66 million people were forcibly liquidated, and even USDe depegged to 0.62.
My position was breached around $110k. My hands moved faster than my brain, and I clicked close—losing less is still a win. The wailing in the group chat went on until dawn: some people lost three years’ worth of profits in one night, while others said they didn’t even get a chance to close their positions (some exchanges even went down at the time).
After that night, I did one thing: I set my leverage to no more than 10x.

Halloween taught us to dress up as ghosts; October 11 taught me something else—leverage is crypto’s ghost. You don’t see it most of the time, but when the market moves, it comes out in force. Staying alive is what matters most.