Bitvavo schedules 18 October trading halt while margin liquidations continue

A scheduled pause with continuing exposure

Bitvavo has scheduled maintenance for Sunday, 18 October 2026, from 05:00 to 07:00 CEST. The exchange says all markets will halt and operations will temporarily stop. Customers with open margin positions need particular attention: Bitvavo says automatic liquidations will continue during the interruption, even though customers cannot manage those positions.

The announcement, posted on 15 October, describes a planned service interruption. Its affected components include the website, mobile app and transfer services. Bitvavo expects an auction after maintenance, followed by regular trading. The announced end of the work therefore should not be treated as a promise that every order can execute at 07:00.

What happens to orders and position controls

Bitvavo's maintenance guide says customers cannot buy, sell or submit new orders during the window. Existing orders cannot be changed or cancelled, and deposits and withdrawals are unavailable. Limit orders specify a price boundary for buying or selling. Open limit orders remain in the order book rather than being automatically removed. They do not execute during the halt, but can execute again when trading resumes.

For margin users, the restrictions also cover closing a position, adding collateral and adjusting take profit or stop loss instructions. Those instructions are intended to exit a position at a chosen profit or loss level. The maintenance guide says their checks pause and restart when markets reopen. Prices may move meanwhile, so an eventual execution can differ from the level selected.

Bitvavo advises making any intended position changes before 05:00 CEST. The practical distinction is between an instruction remaining recorded and that instruction being checked or executed: leaving it in place does not make it active throughout the interruption. This margin guidance is not intended for UK customers, according to the help page.

Why liquidation still has a financial cost

Margin is the customer's own euro collateral supporting a leveraged trade. Leverage creates exposure larger than that collateral, so an adverse price move affects the whole position. Bitvavo's margin guide explains that a long position can be liquidated when the asset falls far enough; for a short position, the adverse direction is a rise. Liquidation means the platform automatically closes the position when its remaining buffer reaches the required maintenance level.

The relevant liquidation price appears in the position details. It is specific to the position, rather than a universal percentage that can be inferred from this maintenance notice. A trading pause should therefore not be read as a freeze in the value of the exposure.

The guide separates market losses from charges. Opening and accumulated borrowing fees are distinct from an additional liquidation closing fee of 2%, calculated on the full position value at liquidation, including borrowed funds. It is not 2% of the customer's initial deposit. Any euro margin remaining after losses and fees is returned to the wallet.

An auction comes before normal trading

Bitvavo's trading rules describe two auction stages. During collection, customers cannot submit market orders, which seek immediate execution at available prices. Other permitted order types can be placed, amended or cancelled, but no orders match yet. During matching, submission, changes and cancellation stop while the exchange pairs orders.

Active limit orders help determine the price that allows the largest quantity to trade. Matching follows price and time priority. Auction executions receive taker fees, the category normally associated with removing available orders, rather than maker fees for adding them.

The general maintenance procedure places trading resumption at least fifteen minutes after scheduled downtime ends. The specific October notice gives no exact auction duration or guaranteed restart minute. Customers should distinguish the scheduled work window from confirmation that a market has resumed normal trading.

Trading and borrowing charges remain separate

The fee schedule helps interpret those categories. The applicable trading rate depends on the market and the customer's previous thirty days of qualifying trading volume. Margin trades use Bitvavo's regular markets and standard trading fees. Borrowing is a separate cost: the published schedule says it accrues hourly as a percentage of the borrowed asset amount for the duration of an open position. A customer's trading tier alone therefore does not describe the full cost of holding a leveraged position.