Is Bitcoin About To See A Repeat Of 2020-2021? What Happened After The Last Flash Crash
On October 20, 2025, the crypto market saw a major flash crash that sent Bitcoin down 20%, and altcoins suffered between 50% and 80% losses as a result. Reports from data trackers show that more than $19 billion in lever...
Archive context
Older archive item. Useful for background and entity history, but not a fresh market-moving signal.
On October 20, 2025, the crypto market saw a major flash crash that sent Bitcoin down 20%, and altcoins suffered between 50% and 80% losses as a result. Reports from data trackers show that more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated as a result. This led to the largest liquidation event in the crypto industry up until that point, leading to comparisons and speculations that this could be a repeat of the infamous COVID-19 crash of 2020.
What It Means For Bitcoin And Crypto If This Is A Repeat Of 2020One of the key crypto players who has pointed out that the current cycle could be similar to that of 2020 is crypto analyst Rekt Fencer. Fencer took to X (formerly Twitter) to share with their over 330,000 followers, a side-by-side chart showing the 2020 performance compared to what is happening now in 2025.
To put this in perspective, back in 2020, the crypto market suffered a flash crash where the Bitcoin price fell by more than 50%, and the altcoin market followed. This was a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns that were announced around the world in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.
In response to the shutdowns, the stock market had crashed, taking Bitcoin and the crypto market down with it. This led to over $1.2 billion in daily liquidation, which at the time was the most significant liquidation in crypto history. However, this figure now pales in comparison to the over $19 billion in liquidations that were recorded last week.
Despite the disparity in the liquidation volumes, crypto analyst Rekt Fencer believes that this could lead to a repeat of what happened after the COVID-19 crash. Back then, the bounce from the crash had been rapid. By 2021, one year later, the entire crypto market had risen to new all-time highs.
Taking that performance and using it to map out the Bitcoin and crypto market performance after last week’s crash, it would mean that the market is ready for another bull run. It would also put the market at the bottom of the bull run, meaning that the Bitcoin price is far from its all-time high price.
Rekt Fencer explains that “History is about to repeat itself” and “The real move starts when everyone thinks it’s over.” Thus, another explosive rally could be right on the horizon, if this isn’t the start of a bear run.
Why this matters
This bitcoin story adds another data point to the current market tape and is useful when read alongside nearby source coverage.
Original source
Read on NewsBTCRelated market context
CFTC Weighs Enforcement Probe Into Kalshi’s Ether Perps Over Repeating $5,500 Trades
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is examining trading in Kalshi’s ether perpetual futures market, where one repeating orde...
$1 billion in trading volume masks hidden liquidity risks for Coinbase stock token holders
More than $1 billion in reported trading makes Coinbase's stock tokens look active. For a holder looking to sell, the question is...
Bitcoin faces $16 billion options expiry Friday, then two more tests hit the rally
Bitcoin options carrying roughly $16 billion in notional value expire on Deribit at 08:00 UTC on Friday, Sept. 25. Calls account f...
Bitcoin ETFs just erased a $5.7 billion hole, but profit-taking is swallowing the new demand
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have erased their 2026 flow deficit after a sharp buying revival, even as the top crypto stru...
How Coinbase Plans to Secure $250 Billion in Assets in a Post-Quantum World
If a cryptographically relevant quantum computer eventually becomes an active threat to Bitcoin’s security, Coinbase wants to have...
Crypto Long & Short: Inside the chain settling $150 billion of stablecoins a week
Tron launched as a content-distribution project and has become the settlement layer for a large share of the world's USDT, process...