If you longed BTC at the 80,814.7 high on BYDFi, which leverage survived the drop to 76,275.6?

Here is where each leverage level would have been liquidated:

• 10x: room about 9.9%, liquidation near 72,814.0. Survived.
• 20x: room about 4.9%, liquidation near 76,854.8. Liquidated, the low went 579 under it.
• 25x: room about 3.9%, liquidation near 77,662.9. Liquidated.
• 50x: room about 1.9%, liquidation near 79,279.2. Liquidated early in the move.
• 100x: room about 0.9%, liquidation near 80,087.4. Liquidated almost immediately.

Same entry, same thesis. Only 10x is still open.

Why this matters today. Overnight reports of a roughly 6.3 billion dollar exploit at Binance sent BTC to about 76,400, and futures liquidations market-wide jumped to around 1.57 billion. More than four fifths of that was longs. BTC liquidations alone were about 522 million. The ladder above is what that looks like for one position.

The screenshot is the live BYDFi BTCUSDT perp page at 4:20 PM ET: last 76,899.5, index 76,927.4, fair 76,905.7, funding +0.0100% with 03:38:18 left on the countdown, 24h high 80,814.7 and low 76,275.6, 24h volume 44.306K BTC, open interest 931.563M, a 15 minute chart and the order book.

API figures at 4:18 PM ET: last 76,945, fair 76,945, index 76,962.7, funding +0.01% per 8 hours, open interest 121,087,170 contracts of 0.0001 BTC (about 12,108.7 BTC), max leverage 500, maintenance 0.1%, initial 0.2%, taker 0.06%, maker 0.02%.

The funding detail most people miss

BTC dropped 4.79% from the high and funding is still positive. Market-wide, BTC funding was positive and rising today too. That means longs are still the crowded side even after the flush, and they keep paying.

Example: 0.1 BTC long at 76,945 = 7,694.50 USDT.

• One settlement at +0.01%: about 0.77 USDT paid by the long.
• Three a day: about 2.31 USDT.

The fee detail

Taker is 0.06% each way, so 0.12% round trip. On 7,694.50 USDT that is about 9.23 USDT. As a share of margin it scales with leverage: about 1.2% of margin at 10x, 2.4% at 20x, 12% at 100x. At 500x the round trip alone is 60% of the margin.

What the other majors did

BTC was not the hardest hit. ETH fell about 4% with open interest down about 5.8% and roughly 361 million of ETH liquidations. SOL open interest dropped about 13.3%. BNB, the token tied directly to the exploit headlines, fell about 6.2% with funding negative. HYPE rallied with open interest up about 28%. BTC stood out by keeping positive, rising funding through the drop, which is why the long side of this ladder still carries a carry cost. In options, puts dominated, with the 74,000 strike for Nov 13 leading activity, a sign that traders were paying for downside protection rather than buying the dip outright.

Reading the ladder the right way

The question is not which leverage looks profitable on the way up. It is which leverage keeps liquidation outside the range the market just showed you. Today's range was 5.62%. Anything above roughly 17x had liquidation inside it for a buyer at the top.

Common mistakes

• Picking leverage first and stop second. Pick the stop, size the position, then make sure liquidation sits beyond the stop.
• Assuming a big drop means funding turns negative. Today it did not.
• Ignoring fees at high leverage.
• Watching last price. Liquidation runs on fair price. Fair matched last at 4:18 PM ET and sat 6.2 USDT above it at 4:20 PM ET.

Short FAQ

Does cross margin avoid this? It moves the liquidation point using your free balance, which means a bigger loss when it hits.

Is 500x ever usable? Only with tiny size and a very tight plan. Fees alone take 60% of margin.

When is the next funding? 8 PM ET.

Try it on your own trade: take your entry, your leverage and today's low of 76,275.6, and work out whether your liquidation sat above or below it.