2025 Review | What 2025 Exposed About Leverage, Liquidity, and Faith
The Year Borrowed Strength Failed
Leverage does not fail quietly; it waits for pressure. God does not collapse systems to punish them; He presses them to reveal what they trust.
Part I showed us that 2025 was not a failure year but a transfer year. Part II showed us that institutional adoption did not validate bitcoin, it scrutinized it. What followed was inevitable. When capital meets conviction, leverage always reveals itself. And in 2025, leverage failed publicly, repeatedly, and at historic scale.
The headline number most people remember is the $78 billion in bitcoin futures liquidations. That figure alone would make 2025 the largest deleveraging event in bitcoin’s history. But it understates the truth. Across the broader crypto market, total liquidations reached approximately $150–155 billion over the year, with the single largest two-day wipeout on October 10–11 exceeding $19 billion. This was not a moment. It was a season.
The anatomy of the unwind tells the real story. Leverage did not collapse in one flash crash. It ground itself to dust over months. On October 10–11, bitcoin fell sharply from roughly $117,125 to $88,575, triggering $2.28 billion in bitcoin liquidations in a single day. Across the market, more than 85% of the wiped-out positions were bullish. The crowd was leaning the same way. Confidence had become consensus. That is always when leverage breaks.
The pain did not end there. In November, bitcoin fell nearly 35% from its October high of $126,080 to a low near $81,600, erasing another $2 billion in leveraged positions and wiping out 396,000 traders in one day. December delivered the final flush. As price dipped below $86,000, nearly $637 million in leveraged positions vanished within 24 hours. The market was not shocked. It was exhausted.
The mechanics matter. Bitcoin futures open interest tells us why this correction felt relentless rather than sudden. At the start of 2025, total open interest sat roughly in the $120–135 billion range. By October 7, it had surged to an all-time high of approximately $235.9 billion, a near 100% increase in just nine months. This was leverage building on leverage, optimism compounding on itself. When price stopped cooperating, the unwind was unavoidable.
By year-end, open interest had collapsed by roughly $90 billion, falling to about $145.1 billion. That represents a 38% drawdown from the peak. Yet here is the detail most people miss. Even after the largest liquidation cascade in crypto history, leverage ended the year higher than it began. Excess was removed, but the system survived. That distinction is critical.
Bitcoin did not collapse because bitcoin is not built on leverage. Humans are. The protocol does not borrow strength from the future. It settles honestly in the present. Blocks kept arriving. Hashrate remained resilient. Long-term holders absorbed supply. Spot liquidity replaced derivatives as ETFs and patient capital stepped in while forced sellers exited. This is what maturation looks like. Pain without failure. Cleansing without collapse.
Scripture names the root problem plainly.
“The borrower is slave to the lender.” — Proverbs 22:7
Leverage promises speed but demands obedience. It feels like freedom until it isn’t. In 2025, many learned that margin is a master, not a tool. Faith, by contrast, cannot be liquidated. It does not answer to funding rates or liquidation engines. It stands or falls on truth.
This is why 2025 mattered spiritually. God has always removed counterfeit saviors when they begin to compete with trust. Leverage is a counterfeit savior. It offers power without patience and reward without endurance. God strips these illusions not to punish, but to teach freedom.
For newer participants, this year explained leverage in real terms. You saw how small price moves caused disproportionate losses. You learned why borrowed conviction never survives volatility. For seasoned participants, the lesson went deeper. Systems built on truth endure stress. Systems built on speed demand rescue.
Leverage collapsed. Liquidity reset. Faith endured. Endurance is often the first proof that truth still stands.
Prayer
Father God 🙏,
Thank You for exposing what cannot last and preserving what is true. Where we leaned on borrowed strength, forgive us. Where we confused speed with wisdom, slow our hearts. Teach us to steward patiently, to trust deeply, and to stand firm when pressure comes. Remove every counterfeit savior from our lives, and anchor us in truth that does not break under stress. May our faith outlast volatility, and our obedience remain steady whether the market applauds or tests us. In Jesus’ name, amen ✝️🕊️📖
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