No complexity. No accident.
10/10 was caused by irresponsible marketing campaigns by certain companies.
On October 10, tens of billions of dollars were liquidated. As CEO of OKX, we observed clearly that the crypto marketâs microstructure fundamentally changed after that day.
Many industry participants believe the damage was more severe than the FTX collapse. Since then, there has been extensive discussion about why it happened and how to prevent a recurrence. The root causes are not difficult to identify.
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What actually happened
1.Binance launched a temporary user-acquisition campaign offering 12% APY on USDe, while allowing USDe to be used as collateral with the same treatment as USDT and USDC, and without effective limits.
2.USDe is a tokenized hedge fund product.
Ethena raises capital via a so-called âstablecoin,â deploys it into index arbitrage and algorithmic trading strategies, and tokenizes the resulting fund. The token can then be deposited on exchanges to earn yield.
3.USDe is fundamentally different from products such as
BlackRock BUIDL and Franklin Templeton BENJI, which are tokenized money market funds with low-risk profiles.
USDe, by contrast, embeds hedge-fund-level risk. This difference is structural, not cosmetic.
4.Binance users were encouraged to convert USDT and USDC into USDe to earn attractive yields, without sufficient emphasis on the underlying risks. From a userâs perspective, trading with USDe appeared no different from trading with traditional stablecoinsâwhile the actual risk profile was materially higher.
5.Risk escalated further as users:
â˘converted USDT/USDC into USDe,
â˘used USDe as collateral to borrow USDT,
â˘converted the borrowed USDT back into USDe,
â˘and repeated the cycle.
This leverage loop produced artificial APYs of 24%, 36%, and even 70%+, widely perceived as âlow riskâ simply because they were offered by a major platform. Systemic risk accumulated rapidly across the global crypto market.
https://t.co/IK2gW4xUOP that point, even a small market shock was sufficient to trigger a collapse.
When volatility hit, USDe depegged quickly. Cascading liquidations followed, and weaknesses in risk management around assets such as WETH and BNSOL further amplified the crash. Some tokens briefly traded near zero.
The damage to global users and companiesâincluding OKX customersâwas severe, and recovery will take time.
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Why this matters
I am discussing the root cause, not assigning blame or launching an attack on Binance. Speaking openly about systemic risks is sometimes uncomfortable, but it is necessary if the industry is to mature responsibly.
I expect there may be significant misinformation and coordinated FUD directed at OKX in the near future. Even so, speaking honestly about systemic risk is the right thing to doâand we will continue to do so.
As the largest global platform, Binance has outsized influenceâand corresponding responsibilityâas an industry leader. Long-term trust in crypto cannot be built on short-term yield games, excessive leverage, or marketing practices that obscure risk.
The industry needs leaders who prioritize market stability, transparency, and responsible innovationânot a winner-take-all mentality where criticism is treated as hostility.
Crypto is still early.
What we choose to normalize today will determine whether this industry earns lasting trustâor repeats the same mistakes again.
Life of a GenZ :
- Born just in time to buy the crypto top
- WW3 at the age of conscription
- Pandemic at the age of enjoyment
- Ai implementation at the age of employment
- sabrina gets hate because sheâs âtoo h0rnyâ
- taylor gets hate because sheâs âmass releasingâ (basically doing her job)
- ariana gets hate because sheâs âtoo skinnyâ
- tate gets hate for âover dancingâ
- madison gets hate because sheâs âtoo pretty to be a singerâ
- dua lipa gets hate because âher features arenât feminine enoughâ
yet nobody is putting the same effort into this abuser.
$BTC $ETH
As I often say, a bottom does not form in the same way as a top: they are two completely opposite processes in terms of price behaviour and, above all, volume interpretation.
A top occurs when there is still apparent strength, breakouts, enthusiasm and incoming liquidity, allowing the biggest players to distribute 'at the top'. In these phases, the OBV often remains positive or stable, precisely because distribution occurs while the public is buying strongly.
A bottom, on the other hand, is the opposite: it is not a sudden explosion, but a slow process of absorption, consolidation and progressive loss of selling pressure. This is why OBV is fundamental: it shows you whether sales are still draining liquidity or whether, on the contrary, the flow is beginning to reverse silently.
To date, OBV continues to show outgoing pressure, with no signs of reversal. This is why I continue to say that we do not yet have real confirmation of a bottom, even though we are in an interesting technical area.
Three key levels are clearly visible on the chart:
The upper red zone: a recovery in this area would restore structural strength and pave the way for new highs, but at the moment it is distant and not supported by volume.
The current area (limbo zone): here the price is seeking stability, but without a reversal in volume it remains only a technical rebound.
The lower support: the level where it would make most sense to build a real base, especially if accompanied by progressive accumulation on the OBV.
In summary, as long as the OBV does not stop discharging and does not build an accumulation structure, we are talking about a simple pullback, not a bottom.
And I would like to add something that I have been repeating for days: in dump phases, I find it more sensible to accumulate ETH than BTC. The structural context, especially on pairs, leaves much more relative room for ETH than for BTC, which is still trapped in a zone of macro indecision.
For macro chart ETH usdt similar to BTC