$18B Liquidation Claim Exposed as Measurement Gap
Solana Research Institute (SRI) recently published an open letter to regulators, highlighting what it claims was a catastrophic $18 billion liquidation event on October 10, 2025. The SRI argues that opaque centralized venues failed while transparent on-chain finance kept functioning during the crash.
The group points to a large auto-deleveraging (ADL) event on Hyperliquid and deficits and oracle delays at Aave as evidence of the problem with centralized exchanges. However, a closer look at the data reveals a significant measurement gap in SRI's claims.
Ambadeta's analysis of six exchanges shows that while there was indeed a peak liquidation of $3.21 billion in one minute, the total liquidation for the 14-hour period was significantly lower, at $9.89 billion. This discrepancy raises questions about the accuracy of SRI's claims and highlights the need for more transparent data in the crypto market.