Córdoba, Spain – October 2025: Leverage.Trading has published its September 2025 Crypto Futures & Leverage Risk Report, providing new behavioral analytics on how retail traders adjusted leverage exposure ahead of the $1.5 billion “Red Monday” liquidation event. The dataset covers 106,302 anonymized trade setups collected across global crypto leverage trading platforms and futures exchanges, offering a data-driven view into how traders managed margin and risk as volatility intensified.
The crypto market witnessed a “Red Monday” on Sept. 22, 2025, when $1.5 billion worth of long positions were liquidated, leaving more than 400,000 traders in losses within 24 hours. However, insights from the latest report show that traders began reducing risk well before the crash.
According to the report, Leverage.Trading’s risk-management tools spiked sharply in the days leading up to the crash, showing that traders were already getting ready before “Red Monday.” The report was able to draw these insights after analyzing data from 106,302 trade setups collected across global crypto leverage trading platforms and futures exchanges. This report is for educational and research purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
The report also discovered that liquidation checks and leverage calculations between September 16–20 were higher than the early month average, reaching almost 30%. This is a key signal showing that traders anticipated the downturn and strategically trimmed exposure before the crash became mainstream news. The publisher also observed a 40% jump in U.S.-based margin verifications, and noted that 58% of all activity occurred on mobile devices — a sign of active, on-the-go risk monitoring as volatility built.
Further analysis revealed that between September 22 and 24, funding rate re-checks went up by 35% above the previous week. At the same time, perpetual funding rates turned negative as Ethereum funding rates dropped to -0.0021, meaning traders were now paying to hold short positions instead of long ones. This same pattern was seen on major perpetual futures platforms, meaning traders were cross-checking with data from different sources, including profit calculators and live market dashboards, to double-check their numbers and guard themselves as the market turned risky.
Before the market crashed, US traders took a risk-first approach rather than placing large bets. Data from Leverage.Trading shows that they ran almost twice as many liquidation checks per user as the global average, showing a clear shift toward defensive trading. This uptick aligns closely with the events of Sept. 22, 2025 when the market experienced a sharp and sudden downturn.
The pattern in Leverage.Trading’s dataset mirrors activity observed on CoinGlass, where Bitcoin funding rate dipped into the negative side days prior to September 22. These findings show that traders moved in sync — shifting from betting on price gains to focusing on protecting their positions.
Leverage.Trading’s report highlights the importance of behavior analytics in crypto, a field long used in traditional finance, but which is in its infancy in crypto, to reveal shifts in trader sentiment and risk appetite before they appear on charts.
“Early in my career, I made the same mistakes many retail traders do: ignoring liquidation thresholds, underestimating margin requirements, and overlooking fees. It wasn’t until I learned to measure and manage those risks that I started trading successfully. That experience shaped the entire mission of Leverage.Trading — to put risk first and make the mechanics of leverage clear and measurable so traders can stay in control.”
— Anton Palovaara, founder of Leverage.Trading.
Anton created Leverage.Trading after noticing a gap in risk management in most derivatives educational content. His first 15 years of his trading career were filled with losses because of overlooking key signals like liquidation thresholds, underestimating margin requirements, and overlooking fees. It was only after recognizing the importance of these indicators that Anton began to see consistent results in his trades.
Methodology
The September dataset analyzed 106,302 anonymized trade setups submitted via Leverage.Trading’s suite of calculators and risk tools. Data was aggregated across futures, margin, leverage, funding rate, and liquidation simulations between September 1–30, 2025. All records were anonymized and processed using proprietary behavioral analytics models to identify shifts in leverage ratios, margin utilization,
funding costs, and risk-check frequency. Only aggregated, non-identifiable data was included in the analysis.
About Leverage.Trading
Leverage.Trading is an independent, risk-first, educational, and research-driven publisher focused on crypto leverage, futures, margin, and derivatives trading. Founded in 2022 by Anton Palovaara and operated by Prospective Aimline S.L. in Córdoba, Spain, the publisher provides traders with advanced calculators, educational explainers, plain-English strategy guides, behavioral data reports, and transparent comparisons of crypto leverage platforms. Its calculators cover key trading mechanics — from liquidation levels and margin requirements to funding fees and position sizing — helping traders quantify exposure and manage risk before execution. Its educational coverage includes research and explainers on crypto futures trading, perpetual futures, and the regulatory aspects of crypto leverage trading in the U.S., helping readers understand how margin and derivatives products differ across jurisdictions.
Leverage.Trading provides research and educational tools only and does not offer investment or trading advice.
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