Retail crypto derivatives traders spent the last half of 2025 doing something that rarely makes headlines: pausing before entering a trade to check how close a position would be to liquidation.

New analysis suggests traders increasingly check liquidation levels and margin requirements before periods of sharp market volatility—often hours or even days before large waves of forced liquidations appear across crypto markets.

The findings come from a behavioral study published earlier this year by Leverage.Trading, an independent publisher providing educational research and analysis on leverage trading and crypto derivatives markets. According to the report, U.S. retail crypto derivatives traders checked…