President Donald J. Trump announced a 100 percent tariff on Chinese exports. This move caused a massive sell-off in the crypto market. Nearly one trillion dollars was wiped out in less than 24 hours. Bitcoin and Ethereum saw significant drops. Leveraged positions worth over 20 billion dollars were liquidated. Analysts call it a liquidity-driven reset.
A shocking announcement by US President Donald J. Trump, a 100 percent tariff on Chinese exports, sent tremors through global markets over the weekend, triggering one of the most violent crypto sell-offs on record and wiping out nearly one trillion dollars off the crypto market in less than 24 hours.
In his statement, Trump accused China of taking an unprecedented position by restricting the export of materials vital to global technology manufacturing. The move, he said, left the US with no choice but to respond in kind.
“Starting November 1st, 2025, or sooner depending on China’s actions, the United States of America will impose a tariff of 100 percent on China,” the president wrote.
The sell-off began following President Trump’s post on Truth Social, blindsiding investors. With US markets closed and global liquidity thin, panic rapidly swept through Asia and Europe before hitting exchanges worldwide. Bitcoin tumbled from over $125,000 to just below $104,000 within hours, while Ethereum slumped 11 percent to around $3,878. Major altcoins, including XRP, Dogecoin, and Cardano, were hammered with losses of up to 30 percent amid what traders called a cascading wave of leveraged liquidations.
Data from CoinGlass showed that over $20 billion worth of leveraged positions were wiped out in just 24 hours, the largest single-day liquidation event in the history of cryptocurrency trading. Roughly 1.6 million traders had their positions forcibly closed, with the majority holding long bets on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
According to Business Am website, Open interest, the crypto market’s equivalent of a Brand Strength Index, plunged nearly 40 percent overnight, signaling a rapid purge of speculative leverage from the system. Despite the steep sell-off, analysts emphasize that this was a liquidity-driven reset rather than a structural failure. “The sell-off was mechanical. It had little to do with blockchain fundamentals and everything to do with macro panic,” said Daniel Parreira, senior vice president for Africa at Thunes, a global payments network.
Bitcoin has rebounded slightly, trading around $111,800 at the time of reporting, following what traders described as an “overreaction” to Trump’s tariff announcement.
“This wasn’t irrational behavior. Bitcoin now trades like a high-beta macro asset; it reacts to global trade policy, inflation data, and central bank signals. That’s a sign of integration, not immaturity,” said Chris Mellor, head of ETF product management at Invesco.
