One Year On: What 10/10 Taught Us

A year ago this weekend, crypto had its worst day on record. Nearly $20 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated in a matter of hours. Bitcoin had set an all time high just days earlier. The mood went from euphoria to shock overnight.

A year is a long time in this market. Here is a reminder of how long.

A Year of Headlines

Think back over the past twelve months and the list is exhausting:

• Hardware wallet exploits. We have lost count of how many.

• The longest US government shutdown on record, which froze economic data releases and left markets flying blind through late 2025.

• DeFi blowups in the months after 10/10, including the Balancer exploit and the collapse of Stream Finance, reminding everyone that yield always comes with risk.

• Bitcoin badly lagging commodities in the opening month of 2026, with the “party is over” and “Bitcoin is dead” takes arriving right on cue.

• A brutal capitulation in early February, with roughly $3.2 billion in realised losses on 5 February 2026, ranking it among the worst loss events in Bitcoin’s history.

• Digital asset treasury companies going from market darlings to deep in the red, with BitMine alone sitting on more than $6 billion in unrealised losses on its Ethereum holdings.

• Endless debate over Strategy’s liquidation point, followed by the company actually selling Bitcoin.

• Oil spikes and escalation in the Middle East, with crypto trading heavily on headlines from the conflict involving the US, Israel, Iran and the Houthis.

• A new Fed chair in Kevin Warsh, and a market trying to read every word.

• Quantum computing and AI FUD.

And everything in between.

Through all of it, Bitcoin fell more than 50% from its all time high to a low of $57.8k. It has since rallied roughly 50% from that low and is now attempting to build the base for its next leg higher.

Custody Is Not a Footnote

Every one of those hardware wallet exploits is the same lesson repeated. Holding your own keys is not the same as holding them securely. Self custody done poorly can be riskier than the threat it is meant to protect against. Smart custody means understanding where your coins sit, who or what can access them, and what happens if a device, a supplier or a seed phrase is compromised. That distinction could be the difference between keeping your coins and losing them.

The Irony of “Bitcoin Is Dead”

At the start of the year, Bitcoin was being written off as gold and other commodities ran hard. The same voices declaring the cycle over are now watching price recover from the very levels they called the end. Markets punish certainty. They tend to punish it most when it peaks.

Price Fell. The Thesis Did Not.

Bitcoin’s price finished the year red. Its value proposition arguably got stronger.

• Neutral settlement layer. In a year of war, sanctions risk and energy shocks, an asset no single government controls became easier to justify.

• Institutions kept buying. ETFs, treasuries and long term funds accumulated through the drawdown while leveraged traders were flushed out.

• The stress test passed. Through every scare, the network kept producing blocks every ten minutes.

None of this guarantees the next move is up. But the gap between sentiment and fundamentals has rarely been this wide.

What This Means for Investors

The lesson of the past year is less about price and more about process. Avoid excessive leverage. Take custody seriously. Ignore the loudest headline of the week. The investors who came through this year in the best shape were the ones who sized positions sensibly and held them securely.

A year from now, the headlines will be different. The principles will not.

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Stormrake Spotlight: Lighter (LIT) ($3.834)

Source: https://www.tradingview.com/x/siuCyWsb/

LIT is hovering above major support and looks set to attempt another move higher from this level, after spending the back end of last week consolidating above it. It is up more than 5.5% in the last 24 hours as the bulls fight off the bears’ attempt to flip momentum bearish.

The bulls face immediate resistance at both moving averages. If these can be cleared, bullish price action should be favoured to resume.

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BTC/USD Key Levels and Price Action:

Source: https://www.tradingview.com/x/uk38cOfh/

Bitcoin spent the weekend recovering and slowly grinding higher after Friday morning’s sharp drop. It has since reclaimed the key $83k level and all moving averages. The bulls are favoured once more on the short term time frame, but price remains within the broader consolidation range until there is a sustained break below $83k or above $87k.

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*All prices are denominated in USD unless stated otherwise*

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Written by Alexandar Artis