Bitcoin spot trading has passed over 300b in October, with traders taking refuge in safety after making leveraged losses of 19b, meaning it is into real accumulation.
The action came after traders had lowered leveraged bets after historic $19 billion in liquidations, an indication that demand shifted to direct bitcoin ownership and self-custody.
Analysts consider this a possible turning point of healthier market dynamics, but there is still caution due to volatility and speculative risk.
Bitcoin traders are quickly dumping their risky leveraged positions in favor of spot market trades in the wake of a crushing $19 billion of losses earlier this month.
The spot trading volume of Bitcoin in October reached a level higher than 300 billion, the second-highest monthly volume in 2025, as the market shifted its attention back to the ownership of Bitcoin itself.
This movement indicates the increased precaution of traders and can become another important turning point to the stability of the market, as per the CryptoQuant and CoinGlass data sources.
A Costly Wake-Up Call from October’s Crash
The volatility in the market started when the US President Donald Trump threatened to impose new tariffs on China, and saw Bitcoin plummet by a record high of $122,000 to almost $101,000 in some of the exchanges.
More than 1.6 million traders had to liquidate positions, with long traders bearing the worst burden, losing close to $17 billion, of which a single loss of $19 million was recorded on Hyperliquid.
Despite the fact that some of the whales earned money on short positions when the crash occurred, the event emphasized the dangers of leveraged trading since it eliminated months of profits within hours.
Bitcoin recorded a slight rebound toward the end of October, trading at a range of $108,000 to $116,000, and this is a sign of stabilization after going through a turbulent launch. Nevertheless, the volatility was a dismal reminder of leveraged market instability.
Spot Trading Surges as Traders Seek Stability
CryptoQuant revealed that Binance led the major part of spot trading in October, trading approximately 174 billion dollars.
Retail traders and institutional traders became more active, pointing to a wider shift to real accumulation of Bitcoin in the short term than to speculation. This shift to spot trading suggests a more demand-driven and less speculative market.
Analysts expect that this would minimize drastic price fluctuations and put them on a more solid growth path.
To substantiate this, total Bitcoin on exchanges dropped to 2.38 million BTC in October, indicating a transition of coins into individual wallets to be held long-term.
Although there were still some whales transferring large volumes onto exchanges to sell, the overall trader behavior was accumulative.
Time-weighted average price (TWAP) became more popular with traders who were willing to accumulate positions over time without spiking prices.
Cautious Optimism Amid Warning Signs
The spot markets have gained momentum, but there is still a lot of caution taken. Market observers caution that retail traders are buying the dip too soon, and they are likely to incur losses in an environment that remains vulnerable.
Liquidity issues persist, particularly after the Federal Reserve had reduced its rates by a further 25 basis points, thus causing an extra 700 million liquidations in the crypto markets.
The recent massive migration to spot trading has the potential to kill or at least reduce volatility, yet the market is prone to global financial strains.