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How CCIX Performed During Crypto's Largest Liquidation Event

This blog explores how CoinDesk Reference Rates, specifically CCIX, performed during October 10th's historic market crash - the largest liquidation event in crypto history.

  • October 28, 2025
  • CoinDesk Data

On October 10, 2025, the digital asset market experienced the largest liquidation event in its history, with $19B in notional positions unwound within 24 hours. Total open interest dropped by 27.5%, falling nearly $60B to $158B—the steepest drawdown occurring within a 25-minute window.

The event revealed significant pricing fragmentation across exchanges, with assets experiencing isolated drawdowns of over 90% while other venues maintained relative stability. This report examines how CoinDesk's Reference Rate - specifically CCIX - performed during this volatility, and the advantages of its multi-venue aggregation methodology in maintaining pricing integrity during market stress.

What is CCIX?

CoinDesk CCIX (CCData Cryptocurrency Index) is a composite spot price, which tracks the value of more than 2,000 cryptocurrency markets. The reference rate uses a 24-hour volume weighting scheme and applies outlier rejection and time penalties for stale prints and quality filters using CoinDesk Research’s Exchange Benchmark, ensuring only high-integrity trading venues contribute.

During events like October 10, benchmarks such as CCIX can: 

  • Establish fair value context: Traders can instantly see whether a venue-specific move reflects genuine market pricing or an isolated anomaly. USDe on Binance traded as low as $0.65 while CCIX’s reference rate for USDe depegged only as low as $0.92, representing a more consensus fair value across multiple markets.
  • Provide objective pricing: Reference rates provide an unbiased, neutral anchor, showing whether a price move is global or localized. Market participants could use CCIX to assess local price deviations and inform their own independent strategies. 
  • Improve post-trade evaluation: Fund managers and exchanges can benchmark performance or liquidation activity against CCIX to determine if events were market-consistent or idiosyncratic.

The full details of the CCIX calculation, governance and exchange selection criteria are detailed in the publicly available CCIX Methodology Document and Benchmark Statement, compliant with the UK Benchmarks Regulation.

October 10 (Black Friday)

On October 10, coinciding with news of proposed 100% China tariffs, crypto markets entered extreme stress:

  • BTC dropped as low as $105,386 based on the CCIX - CoinDesk’s volume weighted average priced reference rate with some major exchanges including Kraken seeing  price fall as low as $100,000. 
  • ETH and SOL saw larger corrections, with CCIX reporting a daily low of $3,645 and $172 respectively. 
  • The most remarkable pain was observed in other altcoins falling by more than 75% in a 25-minute window.
  • The total open interest across all instruments dropped by 27.5% on the daily, falling by nearly $60B to $158B. This recorded the lowest level of open interest across exchanges since July.

So what led to the largest liquidation event in the industry’s history?

At 20:00 UTC, a broad-based sell-off swept across global markets following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a proposed 100% tariff on imports from China. Digital asset markets, already heavily leveraged with open interest near all-time highs and a buildup of crowded long positions, saw prices cascade through tightly clustered stop-loss and liquidation zones - amplifying the downward move.

By 21:00 UTC, nearly $6 billion in liquidations had been reported across exchanges. Amid the peak volatility, three Binance-specific collateral assets under the Unified Account system  - BNSOL, WBETH, and USDe - suffered extreme, venue-specific price dislocations. On Binance, BNSOL plunged to $35, WBETH dropped to $450, and USDe depegged to as low as $0.65.

While exchanges outside Binance - both centralized venues and on-chain - demonstrated greater stability, assets still experienced notable drawdowns. On Bybit, USDe briefly fell to $0.92, yet remained closely pegged on Curve and other decentralized exchanges, illustrating the localized nature of these pricing distortions.

Ethena Labs, the issuer of USDe, clarified that the protocol’s stability remained fully intact and that the de-peg was limited to Binance’s internal mark price. Binance’s oracle for USDe was tied to its own spot order book - a venue that was not the primary source of USDe liquidity. As a result, the combination of oracle design limitations and system overload culminated in a flash crash, triggering liquidations of USDe-margined positions.

Pricing Mechanisms 

This venue-specific pricing failure reportedly stemmed from an issue with oracle design that affected certain assets or reliance on internal market prices derived from a limited set of spot pairs and a conversion-ratio model. When volatility surged and liquidity thinned, the internal pricing of collateral deviated sharply from its fair market value.

As the oracle began marking down these collaterals, users operating under the Unified Account system - where all assets serve as a shared collateral pool in cross-margin mode - saw widespread liquidations across unrelated BTC, ETH and altcoin positions. The ensuing liquidation cascade flooded servers with tens of millions of requests, with market makers reportedly unable to place bids efficiently - creating conditions of severely reduced liquidity. 

Auto-Deleveraging 

Auto-deleveraging mechanisms resulted in the closure of trader positions, including those of market makers hedging spot exposure through derivatives. Although auto-deleveraging serves an essential risk-management function, it arises from the zero-sum nature of derivatives, where one counterparty’s profit equates to another’s loss. Consequently, the forced unwinding of positions likely prompted market makers to sell spot assets in an effort to minimize losses.

CCIX Performance

To understand how pricing integrity held across the broader crypto market during this unprecedented volatility event, we analyzed CCIX reference rates against individual exchange data across a diverse set of assets and trading venues. Within this analysis, Binance's performance warrants particular attention given its market dominance for both spot and derivatives trading - and the severity of the dislocations that occurred there.

Of the 428 assets trading on Binance, 127 dropped 75% or more on the day, with 22 plunging over 90%. The price discrepancies in assets like ATOM, ETHFI, SAND, SUSHI, and ENS illustrate the magnitude of these flash crashes relative to other exchanges.

ATOM:

Trade data shows 2,531 ATOM were sold at a price of $0.001 per ATOM on Binance at 9:20PM. The ATOM CCIX Rate, however, was more robust - with prices dropping to only as low as $2.87 on the day.

ETHFI:

The ETHFI CCIX Rate, saw its price drop only as low as $0.49 while other exchanges including Bitget, Bybit and OKX traded ETHFI as low as $0.31. Trade data shows 537 ETHFi sold at prices below $0.1 on Binance.

SAND:

Trade data shows 10,205 SAND tokens sold at $0.017 per SAND on Binance. While exchanges including Bitget and HTX saw trade prices below $0.08, the SAND CCIX Rate saw its price drop only as low as $0.12. 

SUSHI:

Trade data shows 1,783 SUSHI tokens sold at prices around $0.05 on Binance. The SUSHI CCIX Rate, however, was more robust - with prices dropping to only as low as $0.159 on the day.

ENS:

Trade data shows 1055 ENS sold at prices below $3 on Binance. While the price of ENS went as low as $1.75 on Binance, the ENS CCIX Rate saw a maximum drawdown till $6.71.

The absence of buy orders at these lower price levels underscores a significant depletion of bid-side liquidity across multiple trading pairs on the exchange. 

Among a sample exchange universe comprising Binance, Bitget, Bullish, Bybit, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini, HTX, Kraken, and OKX; Coinbase exhibited the strongest alignment with CCIX reference rates across a universe of 20 selected assets. Bitget and Kraken followed closely, maintaining strong price accuracy with average ranks of 4.14 and 4.52, respectively, among the assets analyzed

Comparative Exchange Analysis: Price Deviation From CCIX Reference Rate, Oct 10, 2025

Meanwhile, an analysis of orderbook data reveals a stark decline in liquidity, with most exchanges experiencing drops exceeding 90% across all 20 assets analyzed. Bybit, OKX, and Bullish recorded the lowest intraday market depth declines relative to the other seven exchanges within the same asset universe.

Comparative Exchange Analysis: Market Depth Drop on Oct 10, 2025

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‍Disclaimer: This material is provided for informational purposes only and constitutes a market analysis report. It should not be construed as financial promotion, investment advice, or a recommendation to trade.

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How CCIX Performed During Crypto's Largest Liquidation Event

On October 10, 2025, the digital asset market experienced the largest liquidation event in its history, with $19B in notional positions unwound within 24 hours. Total open interest dropped by 27.5%, falling nearly $60B to $158B—the steepest drawdown occurring within a 25-minute window.

The event revealed significant pricing fragmentation across exchanges, with assets experiencing isolated drawdowns of over 90% while other venues maintained relative stability. This report examines how CoinDesk's Reference Rate - specifically CCIX - performed during this volatility, and the advantages of its multi-venue aggregation methodology in maintaining pricing integrity during market stress.

What is CCIX?

CoinDesk CCIX (CCData Cryptocurrency Index) is a composite spot price, which tracks the value of more than 2,000 cryptocurrency markets. The reference rate uses a 24-hour volume weighting scheme and applies outlier rejection and time penalties for stale prints and quality filters using CoinDesk Research’s Exchange Benchmark, ensuring only high-integrity trading venues contribute.

During events like October 10, benchmarks such as CCIX can: 

  • Establish fair value context: Traders can instantly see whether a venue-specific move reflects genuine market pricing or an isolated anomaly. USDe on Binance traded as low as $0.65 while CCIX’s reference rate for USDe depegged only as low as $0.92, representing a more consensus fair value across multiple markets.
  • Provide objective pricing: Reference rates provide an unbiased, neutral anchor, showing whether a price move is global or localized. Market participants could use CCIX to assess local price deviations and inform their own independent strategies. 
  • Improve post-trade evaluation: Fund managers and exchanges can benchmark performance or liquidation activity against CCIX to determine if events were market-consistent or idiosyncratic.

The full details of the CCIX calculation, governance and exchange selection criteria are detailed in the publicly available CCIX Methodology Document and Benchmark Statement, compliant with the UK Benchmarks Regulation.

October 10 (Black Friday)

On October 10, coinciding with news of proposed 100% China tariffs, crypto markets entered extreme stress:

  • BTC dropped as low as $105,386 based on the CCIX - CoinDesk’s volume weighted average priced reference rate with some major exchanges including Kraken seeing  price fall as low as $100,000. 
  • ETH and SOL saw larger corrections, with CCIX reporting a daily low of $3,645 and $172 respectively. 
  • The most remarkable pain was observed in other altcoins falling by more than 75% in a 25-minute window.
  • The total open interest across all instruments dropped by 27.5% on the daily, falling by nearly $60B to $158B. This recorded the lowest level of open interest across exchanges since July.

So what led to the largest liquidation event in the industry’s history?

At 20:00 UTC, a broad-based sell-off swept across global markets following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a proposed 100% tariff on imports from China. Digital asset markets, already heavily leveraged with open interest near all-time highs and a buildup of crowded long positions, saw prices cascade through tightly clustered stop-loss and liquidation zones - amplifying the downward move.

By 21:00 UTC, nearly $6 billion in liquidations had been reported across exchanges. Amid the peak volatility, three Binance-specific collateral assets under the Unified Account system  - BNSOL, WBETH, and USDe - suffered extreme, venue-specific price dislocations. On Binance, BNSOL plunged to $35, WBETH dropped to $450, and USDe depegged to as low as $0.65.

While exchanges outside Binance - both centralized venues and on-chain - demonstrated greater stability, assets still experienced notable drawdowns. On Bybit, USDe briefly fell to $0.92, yet remained closely pegged on Curve and other decentralized exchanges, illustrating the localized nature of these pricing distortions.

Ethena Labs, the issuer of USDe, clarified that the protocol’s stability remained fully intact and that the de-peg was limited to Binance’s internal mark price. Binance’s oracle for USDe was tied to its own spot order book - a venue that was not the primary source of USDe liquidity. As a result, the combination of oracle design limitations and system overload culminated in a flash crash, triggering liquidations of USDe-margined positions.

Pricing Mechanisms 

This venue-specific pricing failure reportedly stemmed from an issue with oracle design that affected certain assets or reliance on internal market prices derived from a limited set of spot pairs and a conversion-ratio model. When volatility surged and liquidity thinned, the internal pricing of collateral deviated sharply from its fair market value.

As the oracle began marking down these collaterals, users operating under the Unified Account system - where all assets serve as a shared collateral pool in cross-margin mode - saw widespread liquidations across unrelated BTC, ETH and altcoin positions. The ensuing liquidation cascade flooded servers with tens of millions of requests, with market makers reportedly unable to place bids efficiently - creating conditions of severely reduced liquidity. 

Auto-Deleveraging 

Auto-deleveraging mechanisms resulted in the closure of trader positions, including those of market makers hedging spot exposure through derivatives. Although auto-deleveraging serves an essential risk-management function, it arises from the zero-sum nature of derivatives, where one counterparty’s profit equates to another’s loss. Consequently, the forced unwinding of positions likely prompted market makers to sell spot assets in an effort to minimize losses.

CCIX Performance

To understand how pricing integrity held across the broader crypto market during this unprecedented volatility event, we analyzed CCIX reference rates against individual exchange data across a diverse set of assets and trading venues. Within this analysis, Binance's performance warrants particular attention given its market dominance for both spot and derivatives trading - and the severity of the dislocations that occurred there.

Of the 428 assets trading on Binance, 127 dropped 75% or more on the day, with 22 plunging over 90%. The price discrepancies in assets like ATOM, ETHFI, SAND, SUSHI, and ENS illustrate the magnitude of these flash crashes relative to other exchanges.

ATOM:

Trade data shows 2,531 ATOM were sold at a price of $0.001 per ATOM on Binance at 9:20PM. The ATOM CCIX Rate, however, was more robust - with prices dropping to only as low as $2.87 on the day.

ETHFI:

The ETHFI CCIX Rate, saw its price drop only as low as $0.49 while other exchanges including Bitget, Bybit and OKX traded ETHFI as low as $0.31. Trade data shows 537 ETHFi sold at prices below $0.1 on Binance.

SAND:

Trade data shows 10,205 SAND tokens sold at $0.017 per SAND on Binance. While exchanges including Bitget and HTX saw trade prices below $0.08, the SAND CCIX Rate saw its price drop only as low as $0.12. 

SUSHI:

Trade data shows 1,783 SUSHI tokens sold at prices around $0.05 on Binance. The SUSHI CCIX Rate, however, was more robust - with prices dropping to only as low as $0.159 on the day.

ENS:

Trade data shows 1055 ENS sold at prices below $3 on Binance. While the price of ENS went as low as $1.75 on Binance, the ENS CCIX Rate saw a maximum drawdown till $6.71.

The absence of buy orders at these lower price levels underscores a significant depletion of bid-side liquidity across multiple trading pairs on the exchange. 

Among a sample exchange universe comprising Binance, Bitget, Bullish, Bybit, Coinbase, Crypto.com, Gemini, HTX, Kraken, and OKX; Coinbase exhibited the strongest alignment with CCIX reference rates across a universe of 20 selected assets. Bitget and Kraken followed closely, maintaining strong price accuracy with average ranks of 4.14 and 4.52, respectively, among the assets analyzed

Comparative Exchange Analysis: Price Deviation From CCIX Reference Rate, Oct 10, 2025

Meanwhile, an analysis of orderbook data reveals a stark decline in liquidity, with most exchanges experiencing drops exceeding 90% across all 20 assets analyzed. Bybit, OKX, and Bullish recorded the lowest intraday market depth declines relative to the other seven exchanges within the same asset universe.

Comparative Exchange Analysis: Market Depth Drop on Oct 10, 2025

‍

‍Disclaimer: This material is provided for informational purposes only and constitutes a market analysis report. It should not be construed as financial promotion, investment advice, or a recommendation to trade.

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