Crypto Market Recap Oct 29, 2026: Leverage Flushed

What Moved

Crypto sold off. Total market capitalisation fell 4.3% to $2.66T over the 24 hours to 01:18 UTC, with losses spread across the board rather than concentrated in a few names.

Bitcoin closed at $77,122, -4.7% on the day, roughly in step with the wider market. Dominance stands at 58.3%. Ethereum lost 5.6% to $2,213.

Breadth was weak: 2027 assets fell against 400 that rose, and only 19.0% of the hundred largest managed a gain.

Hyperliquid (HYPE) was the day's strongest mover at +12.3%, ahead of TRX (+9.5%). At the other end, Ethena (ENA) fell 15.4%, with PEARL (-14.6%) close behind. By sector, Derivatives & Perpetuals led (+5.6%) while Storage & Compute trailed (-9.0%).

Volume and Leverage

Volume was the story: $87.8B of spot turnover over the day, +83.0% on the previous session. Spot on centralised exchanges accounted for $83.8B, on-chain swaps $5.75B and derivatives $137B.

Leverage took the hit: $812M of perpetual positions were liquidated over the day, most of it longs ($586M against $226M of shorts). Open interest stands at $65.6B.

Sentiment

Sentiment is fear: our Fear & Greed index reads 35 (36 yesterday, 52 last week).

Sectors

Rotation was visible at the sector level. Derivatives & Perpetuals finished +5.6% while Storage & Compute closed -9.0%, a spread of 14.6 points across the 10 sectors we track; 2 of them rose and 8 fell, with the middle of the pack (Privacy) at -5.1%. Derivatives & Perpetuals holding up while the market fell is the kind of relative strength worth noting if the selling continues.