“Easiest Bear Market Ever” Says Crypto Expert as Bitcoin Falls to Six-Month Low

Bitcoin has been in a slump over the last three days, losing about 10% of its market value as the main cryptocurrency fell from around $108,000 to about $97,000. The market went down fast, hitting key short-term levels and pushing out positions that had been untouched since October.

Samson Mow, the face of the ongoing $1 million Bitcoin debate, dismissed the whole decline with one comment, calling it an "obvious bear trap."

Glassnode recorded the largest realized-loss print of the quarter during the drop, when coins in the 3-6 month age band moved and roughly $600 million were lost within one hour. This cohort usually reflects holders who are not highly reactive, so seeing them exit in size signals that frayed nerves finally broke. 

The Bitcoin price is behaving in a similar way. When it fell to $97,000, it was snapped up straight away by the spot markets once the forced liquidation waves had passed. Most of the pressure came from overextended positions rather than widespread distribution. 

Cleanup

Derivatives desks pointed to three concentration zones — around $101,000, $99,500 and $97,800 — where old longs were wiped out. Once those pockets were cleared, the tape no longer showed the aggressive follow-through that you would normally see with a deeper unwinding.

When you put it all together, the mix of local capitulation, liquidation-driven flow and fast spot response makes it look like the move was more of a cleanup than a structural break.

That is the background behind Mow's comment, and it keeps the focus on how Bitcoin is doing around the $97,000 mark now that forced selling has passed.

The cryptocurrency market faced $1.1 billion in liquidations over 24 hours on November 14, 2025, with $968 million from long positions.

More than 246,000 traders were forced out, triggering fresh comparisons with the darkest period of the 2022 FTX collapse.

Liquidation Wave Hits Major Crypto Exchanges

During the recent 24-hour period, $1.1 billion in positions were liquidated, with long positions suffering $973 million in losses compared to $131.37 million for shorts.

The largest single liquidation was a $44.29 million BTC-USDT position on HTX. In the four-hour window, Hyperliquid saw $134.16 million in long liquidations, with Bybit close behind at $122.57 million.

Liquidations occur when exchanges close leveraged trades due to insufficient margin. High leverage leads to automatic closures when markets turn sharply, especially during periods of volatility.

A heavy tilt toward long liquidations suggests many traders were optimistic about the price direction when the market reversed.

Against this backdrop, sentiment has dipped to lows reminiscent of the immediate aftermath following FTX’s November 2022 collapse.

Despite its impact, this incident does not rank among the ten largest recorded. The record stood at $19.16 billion in October 2025, following the announcement of a US-China tariff.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin technical indicators highlight warning signs, prompting debate about whether this signals the start of a new bear market or represents a sharp correction.

Sentiment Plummets to FTX-Era Lows

Market analyst Negentropic drew sharp comparisons to the 2022 FTX crisis when evaluating the current outlook. Bitcoin’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) now sits in massively oversold territory, a condition not seen since 2022.

For the first time in three years, the pioneer crypto has also dropped below its lower volatility band, signaling severe market stress.

The FTX collapse in November 2022 marked a watershed moment for the crypto industry, erasing billions in market value. News about Alameda Research’s finances and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao’s move to liquidate FTT holdings sparked a bank run and ultimately led to FTX’s bankruptcy, resulting in a drastic drop in Bitcoin’s price as confidence vanished.

This comparison highlights not just price drops, but also deep uncertainty among market participants. Lower liquidity across exchanges, waning engagement from experienced builders, and fast changing narratives mirror the turmoil after the 2022 failures of Luna, Three Arrows Capital, FTX, Genesis, and BlockFi.

Experts Offer Diverging Market Outlooks

Despite negative sentiment, not every analyst sees the situation as catastrophic. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju outlined a key threshold for confirming a bear market.

In his view, Bitcoin holders from the past 6 to 12 months have a cost basis near $94,000. Unless pricing falls below this level, the bear cycle is not confirmed.

This view adds nuance to the bear market debate. The $94,000 support is both a psychological and technical floor for many holders. Unless that breaks, analysts say the current weakness might simply be a correction within a broader bullish period.

Meanwhile, Haseeb Qureshi of DragonFly Capital offered a contrasting perspective, arguing the market is not facing 2022-level systemic failures.

Unlike that period of cascading exchange collapses, bank failures, and stablecoin depeggings, Qureshi points out that now, losses are coming mainly from falling prices.

Divergent expert opinions reflect the market’s uncertainty. While indicators and sentiment show distress, the industry’s core infrastructure is holding stronger than during previous crises.

What to Know:

• Bitcoin’s ETF-driven evolution into digital gold is softening strict maximalism and encouraging more diversified crypto portfolios.
• Capital is rotating into top altcoins with real narratives, especially in infrastructure, AI and DePIN rather than pure speculation.
• PEPENODE mixes meme culture with gamified virtual mining and multi token rewards to keep holders engaged.

For most of crypto’s history the script was simple: own Bitcoin, ignore everything else. That mindset is fading. Bitcoin now behaves more like digital gold, while the real experimentation (and much of the upside) is shifting to newer chains and app layers.

Spot Bitcoin ETFs accelerated that shift. Many veteran holders in the US are moving coins from self custody into ETF wrappers to gain tax advantages and easier reporting without giving up long term $BTC exposure.

Yes, OG whales definitely aren’t selling their Bitcoin for nothing – they’re going the ETF way.

On chain, that unlocks fresh capital that no longer needs to sit idle. Instead of chasing random memes, that capital is rotating into infrastructure and narrative rich plays.

High throughput networks like Avalanche, DePIN platforms such as Peaq and experimental designs like Kaspa’s blockDAG are drawing serious research time from investors who once swore they would never touch an altcoin. In this more mature market, Bitcoin can remain the macro anchor, while the upside shifts toward the top altcoins that pair clear stories with working products and lean tokenomics. Meme coins still matter, but they now need actual hooks.

PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) tries to be one of those hooks. It blends Pepe style culture with a mine to earn model that turns virtual mining into a browser based strategy game.

With more than $2.1M already raised at a presale price of $0.0011454 and 605% staking rewards, it gives rotated Bitcoin profits a defined, higher risk lane.

PEPENODE’s Mine-To-Earn Model And Presale In One Snapshot

PEPENODE ($PEPENODE) starts from a basic problem – most crypto presales and staking pools are passive: you buy, you lock, you wait, and attention fades long before launch.

The project’s whitepaper instead describes a virtual mining simulator. After TGE, holders will build a server room inside a web app by buying Miner Nodes and upgrading Facilities with $PEPENODE.

Over the last few weeks, analysts have been predicting that the Bitcoin price could crash again after the initial October 10 crash. This is because of the weakening market trends that have shown that Bitcoin is still favoring a downtrend at this point. Crypto analyst Lixing_Gan on the TradingView website also shares this view, with the appearance of a descending trend pattern that suggests that the Bitcoin price is more likely to fall than rise.

Bitcoin Price At Risk Of Major Crash Below $90,000

So far, the Bitcoin price has been able to maintain its hold above the psychological level of $100,000, despite bears briefly pushing the price below this level. It has been trading in a tight range of $101,000 to $105,000 during this time, but with no notable momentum that could push its price higher. This tight range, unfortunately, plays into the descending pattern that maps a path downward.

According to the crypto analyst’s chart, the descending pattern was formed at the start of October, well before the historic 10/10 crash. This means that the bearish trend had begun much earlier, and the resultant crash was only in response to bullish positions weakening across the board.

This was triggered by massive sell-offs, mainly among whales and holders that have held onto their BTC for a notable amount of time. Over the last few months, these long-term holders have sold off more than 390,000 BTC, triggering billions of dollars in selling pressure. Given this, it is no surprise that the Bitcoin price broke down the way it did at the start of October.

These sell-offs from the long-term holders, though, the crypto analyst believes, are a distribution phase. As they sell off their holdings to newer investors, the cost basis for each Bitcoin begins to rise, increasing the likelihood that buyers will hold for longer.

Looking at the descending trendline from here, technical analysis suggests that the Bitcoin price is still testing the upper bound of the trendline. As the analyst explains, this upper bound happens to coincide with $106,500, which has been a major resistance for the cryptocurrency.

In addition to the resistance above $106,000, the Bitcoin Ichimoku cloud also shows a rise in bearish pressure. This means that the $100,000 psychological level is still at risk, and if it breaks, then the current decline could deepen.

The targets for this Bitcoin price crash lie well below the $90,000 level. The first major support is at $93,000, but a break below here could extend the decline to as low as $88,000 before the bulls find their footing again.

The crypto market is deep in correction mode, with the global market cap falling to a six-month low near $3.27 trillion. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have retreated sharply, dropping 23% and 36% from their all-time highs. Sentiment has turned fearful across the market, with the Crypto Fear & Greed Index plunging to 15, reflecting rising anxiety among traders.

Bitcoin has now fallen back to levels last seen in June 2025, marking one of its toughest Novembers in recent years as the price slid from its October peak to the mid-$90,000 range.

Why Bitcoin Is Falling

Popular online theories about whales moving coins, governments dumping Bitcoin, or critics like Paul Krugman sparking panic don’t match the on-chain or market data. Even slowing ETF inflows fail to explain the severity of the crash.

Instead, the primary pressure comes from a sudden macroeconomic shift. The latest U.S. inflation report came in hotter than expected, sharply reducing the chances of a December Federal Reserve rate cut. With financial conditions tightening, risk assets, including tech stocks and crypto, began to unwind. Weakness in the AI sector added to the stress, turning a gradual decline into a broad market pullback.

Leverage Wipeouts and Traditional Market Stress

The downturn intensified as over-leveraged positions in the crypto market were rapidly liquidated. This cascade of forced liquidations pushed Bitcoin lower at high speed, adding fuel to an already tense environment.

Traditional markets also showed signs of strain. SoftBank’s unexpected sale of its entire Nvidia stake shocked tech investors, while the collapse of two subprime hedge funds drew comparisons to early 2007. Altcoin Daily analyst highlighted how these cross-market fears spilled into crypto, deepening the decline.

Options Expiry Adds More Pressure

Today’s expiration of .7 billion in Bitcoin and Ethereum options has injected even more volatility. Put volume has surged, signaling that traders are positioning for further downside. With Bitcoin’s max pain level much higher than current prices, many traders are betting on a drop below $95,000.

Ethereum is witnessing similar bearish positioning, with expectations building for a move under $3,000.

Despite the turmoil, analysts emphasize that Bitcoin historically moves in sharp cycles. Michael Saylor reinforced this view, noting that Bitcoin often reaches new highs, corrects heavily, and then rebounds stronger. Volatility isn’t a flaw, it’s part of Bitcoin’s long-term growth pattern.

Altcoins Deep in Red

As Bitcoin leads the decline, major altcoins such as XRP, BNB, SOL, ADA, and ZEC have fallen 5–12% in the past 24 hours. Meme coins like DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE have also erased earlier gains, with PEPE down 80% this year.

With analysts eyeing potential Bitcoin support near $94,000, many traders expect more downside in the broader altcoin market as well.

The launch of the first spot XRP ETF was expected to bring a strong boost to the market, but instead, XRP has slipped into another round of losses. The token fell more than 7% in a single day, dropping from the $2.50 zone and sliding toward $2.20 as broader market pressure continues to weigh down sentiment. 

For many holders, the big question is simple, why is XRP falling even after such a historic launch?

Unexpected XRP ETF Debut

Crypto analyst Nick Crypto Crusader explained that the price drop has less to do with XRP and more to do with the overall market. Bitcoin is still selling off sharply, pulling down most altcoins with it. During such periods, even positive news struggles to lift prices.

Still, the debut of Canary Capital’s spot XRP ETF (XRPC) shocked many analysts. The fund opened with over $58 million in first-day trading volume, the strongest ETF launch of the year. 

Senior ETF analysts had expected around $17 million, yet that estimate was crushed within the first 30 minutes of trading.