On October 10, 2025, crypto experienced its largest liquidation event in history. $19 billion was wiped out in 48 hours. Bitcoin crashed from $126,000 to $105,000. Peter Schiff called it a "total wipeout." Traders warned of worse to come.
But here's what actually happened: the market deleveraged. Open interest dropped from $48.7B to $45.1B, funding rates plummeted 51%, and overleveraged tourists got flushed. This wasn't the beginning of a crash. It was the cleanse before the explosion. Yesterday we saw something similar, but on a smaller scale. However looking past that noise and thought the signals, we see all the signs of an incoming bullrun.
The 2020-2021 Playbook Is Running Again, But Faster
The setup mirrors 2020-2021 exactly:
- •Bitcoin ETFs pulled in $2.71 billion during October 6-10. BlackRock's IBIT holds $65.26 billion. 85% of institutional firms now allocate to digital assets.
- •We are 97.5% through a standard cycle, where the final 2.5% historically delivers the most explosive gains.
- •Fed rate cuts hit 93% probability.
- •The stimulus echo of 2020-2021: Trump floated a $1,000-$2,000 "tariff dividend" proposal on October 2, 2025, building retail FOMO before the money even arrives.
- •And finally, Elon Musk posted an AI video of his Shiba Inu dog Floki on October 20, 2025. FLOKI jumped 27% as volume surged 802% to $540 million. The exact playbook that triggered SHIB's 8,000,000% rally in 2021 when he posted photos of that same dog breed.
History Doesn't Repeat, But It Rhymes: Three Plays That Matter Right Now
ASTER ($ASTER) captured 32% of all blockchain fees in September with $519 billion trading volume and $2.34 billion TVL. As BNB meme volume explodes, Aster captures the fees. (Website: https://www.asterdex.com/en)
FOUR.MEME created 52,000+ tokens since July with $4.4 million BNB Foundation backing. Fair launches with no presales or insider allocations. The migration platform for everyone fleeing Solana's rug factory. (Website: https://four.meme/)
While both have already picked up momentum and could be considered late for early entry, we have a new player entering the BNB ring.
BALZ ($BALZ): Raising millions within hours on their time-limited sale closing later today October 31st, and only 1 CZ tweet away from a billion dollar cap. BALZ is one of the most serious projects building on BNB currently, despite its irreverent branding and memetic culture. With over 40,000 members before their highly anticipated token launch on X, the project has taken an unconventional approach to community acquisition through guerrilla marketing and their "rug pull recovery protocol." Rather than allocating capital to influencer campaigns, the team invests millions directly into compensating rugged communities and migrating them to BNB. At the time of writing, over 10,000 verified holders are queued to migrate.
The team has built a protocol that gives back to investors of rugged projects.
Their launch, which they aptly call the Fair as F* Launch rather than a presale, positions BALZ similarly to how memes like Shiba Inu or Floki entered the market in 2020, before its exponential growth phase. (Website: https://faf.balz.fun/)
The Quiet BNB Takeover
While traders panicked, something significant was happening on Binance Smart Chain. In October 2025, BNB recorded 3.62 million daily active addresses, an all-time high surpassing its previous peaks. Total Value Locked surged 217% to $17.1 billion from $5.4 billion at year start. DEX trading volume hit $20.5 billion compared to Solana's $12.7 billion in the same period.
The catalyst wasn't subtle. In September 2025, CZ changed his X profile from "ex-@binance" to "@binance." The message was clear. He's back. BNB responded by hitting $1,311, a new all-time high. YZi Labs announced a $1 billion fund dedicated to BNB ecosystem development. New token launches started capturing serious capital. 币安人生 (Binance Life) reached $450 million market cap within days. The $BNB token surged 33,000% in October alone.
Perhaps most telling is this data point that few are discussing: 70% of BNB meme token traders are currently profitable according to on-chain analytics. That number stands in stark contrast to what's happening on competing chains, where retail investors face systematic losses.
Solana Is Bleeding, Base Never Had a Pulse
For Solana, the numbers are brutal:
- •98.7% of Pump.fun tokens are rugs.
- •Daily Solana traders collapsed 87% from 8 million to 1 million.
- •Network revenue plunged 93%.
And Base? Despite 296 million monthly transactions, momentum stalled. Brett, Degen, Toshi, all abandoned. Base has infrastructure but zero culture. It's a shopping mall with no shoppers.
Markets Are Coiled. The Question Is Where You're Positioned.
Markets deleveraged and reset. Institutional money is flooding in. Fed is cutting rates. Elon is shilling Shiba Inus again. BNB’s Smart Chain infrastructure is eating Solana and Base alive. We're 97.5% through the cycle. Q4 seasonality is bullish. Analysts expect Bitcoin at $130K-$150K by year-end with altseason accelerating into Q1 2026. The migration is real. Don't get left holding Solana rugs and Base ghosts when the music stops.