The cryptocurrency world was shaken on October 10 when U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, triggering what many are calling the worst single-day liquidation event in crypto history. In just a few hours, over $19 billion in leveraged positions vanished, and more than 1.6 million traders were liquidated.
Trump announced via his social media platform that the U.S. would double tariffs on Chinese goods and put strict export controls on software. He accused China of taking “hostile actions” through export restrictions on rare-earth minerals and added that there was “no reason” to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit. His words rattled markets around the world.
Every major risk asset took a hit — equities fell, oil dropped, and crypto assets led the rout as investors scrambled into gold and U.S. Treasuries for safety. Data from Coinglass confirms the scale: $19.38 billion wiped out in just 24 hours — a record for the crypto market. Of that, about $16.87 billion were long positions (bets on price rising), while $2.51 billion were short positions.
The panic was swift: within the first hour of Trump’s post, nearly $7 billion in positions were liquidated. The most dramatic single liquidation was a $203.36 million ETH-USDT position on the exchange Hyperliquid. Analysts say the crash was fueled by over-leverage and a market already stretched by bullish momentum.
“The tariff news was the ignition,” said Ravi Doshi, co-head of markets at FalconX, “and it lit the fuse under a market full of leveraged bets.” Bitcoin (BTC), the benchmark of crypto markets, bore the heaviest blow. It dropped more than 12% from its recent highs, slipping from over $126,000 to nearly $102,000 in the heat of the crash.
Roughly $5.39 billion in BTC positions were liquidated — $4.69 billion from longs and $703.79 million from shorts. By midday October 11, it was trading around $111,500, with its market cap at about $2.22 trillion and daily trading volume surging over 140%. Because so many traders had high-risk, leveraged bets on upward moves, the sudden flip in sentiment forced a cascade of stop-loss orders and margin liquidations.
Ethereum (ETH) followed BTC into freefall, shedding roughly 12–13% of its value and dropping below $4,000, currently priced at $3,808. In total, $4.45 billion worth of ETH positions were wiped out, about $3.86 billion were long trades, while $583.89 million were from shorts. Solana (SOL) dropped nearly 18% to about $182.5. Roughly $2.02 billion in SOL positions were liquidated (with $1.74 billion from longs). Its trading volumes jumped sharply, as traders fled leveraged bets.
XRP slid around 13%, falling to nearly $2.44. Total liquidations hit $709.98 million, including $616.74 million in long positions. XRP was already under pressure from delays in SEC approvals of XRP-related ETFs. Dogecoin (DOGE) saw one of the steepest falls, approximately 24%, sliding to $0.19. Liquidations totaled $475.31 million, with $372.89 million in long positions. Retail traders bore much of the pain here; DOGE’s trading volume spiked over 300%. Each of these coins also suffered from high leverage in derivatives markets, where many traders were betting on continued upside with little room for error.
The entire crypto market cap shrank by more than 9.2%, slipping from $4.30 trillion to about $3.76 trillion in a day. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to 59.8%, while Ethereum held 12.2%, leaving the rest of the market with 27.9% share. Trading volume surged as panic trades ruled the day. In many ways, this crash was a textbook case of how macro events, leverage, and sentiment can combine to create a perfect storm. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index plunged from 64 (Greed) to 27 (Fear) — its steepest tumble since the COVID-era free fall.
Housing so much leverage, the crypto market remains vulnerable until sentiment stabilizes. The immediate focus will be China’s response and how Trump’s policies evolve in the coming weeks. The new tariffs are set to take effect on November 1, meaning traders have time, but also uncertainty, to grapple with.
Some believe this dramatic purge was necessary to reset the market. Brian Strugats, head trader at Multicoin Capital, said this “flush-out” could make future rallies healthier. Institutional flows, such as BlackRock’s ETF investments earlier this month, may help provide a base for recovery, if macro forces allow it. October 10 will likely be remembered as a landmark crash, one where a single presidential policy announcement erased nearly $20 billion from crypto markets in a blur of panic and forced exits.
