Trump’s China Tariffs Trigger $19 Billion Crypto Sell-Off

Crypto holders around the globe are hurting this Saturday.

Shortly after President trump announced a 100% tariff on China over $19 billion dollars worth of crypto positions were liquidated.

Coin Glass has reported it was the largest liquidation event in crypto history.

Bitcoin just minutes after the announcement dropped 12%.

Yahoo Finance reported more on the unexpected event:

Crypto market traders were hit by record liquidations just days after Bitcoin touched an all-time high, volatility triggered in large part by the latest round of tariffs from US President Donald Trump.

Cryptocurrency prices tumbled on Friday after Trump said he would impose an additional 100% tariff on China and export controls on software. The declines precipitated, and then were made worse by what data tracker Coinglass described as “the largest liquidation event in crypto history.”

While market weakness had already been present coming into Friday, Trump’s post sparked a decline of more than 12% in Bitcoin. The largest token, which had earlier this week reached a record of more than $125,000, was hovering below $113,000 as of Saturday morning in London.

Over the past 24 hours, bets worth more than $19 billion have been wiped out, and more than 1.6 million traders liquidated, according to Coinglass data. More than $7 billion of those positions were sold in less than one hour of trading on Friday.

In its post on X, Coinglass said the total might be much higher given that exchanges don’t necessarily report such orders in real time. Binance Holdings Ltd., the world’s largest crypto exchange, only reports one liquidation order per second, according to the post.

“The focus now turns to counterparty exposure and whether this triggers broader market contagion,” said Brian Strugats, head trader at Multicoin Capital. He added that some estimates place total liquidations above $30 billion.

One of the worst days in crypto history happened yesterday.

Traders on Twitter lost everything.

Over $19 billion dollars was liquidated.

Scary times.

But one insider made 9 figures on a short position he put in 30 minutes before Trump’s tariff announcement. pic.twitter.com/D7l0ExdY3V

— Jack Mac (@JackMacCFB) October 11, 2025

$19B WIPED FROM CRYPTO AFTER TRUMP TARIFF SHOCK

Over $19 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in 24 hours — the biggest single-day loss in crypto history. The crash followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff hike on Chinese imports…

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) October 11, 2025

The Block reported more on the darkest day of crypto in recent years:

Crypto markets are tanking for the second time on Friday after President Donald Trump confirmed he would impose a 100% tariff on imports from China. Bitcoin dropped nearly 8% in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s announcement, falling under the $105,000 level, with other majors faring even worse.

ETH, the native token for the second-largest blockchain, Ethereum, dropped nearly 12%, while the next three largest tokens by market cap, BNB, XRP, and SOL, fell by at least 11.9%, 17.6%, and 12.8%, respectively, according to The Block’s price page.

In fact, most tokens within the top 300 by market capitalization dropped down double digits. However, many have since slightly bounced back.

Crypto-related stocks are also deeply affected, with mining firm Bitdeer (ticker BTDR), stablecoin issuer Circle (CRCL), and Ethereum treasury firm Bitmine (BMNR) leading losses, according to The Block’s crypto stock prices page.

Trump announced via Truth Social that he will raise tariffs on China in response to a move from Beijing to tighten its control over its rare earth elements exports. The new tariffs are expected to begin Nov. 1 or sooner.

“It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Of note, the Official Trump token (TRUMP) fell 30% to $5.41, an all-time low since launching in January.

The crypto market shed at least $125 billion when Trump first threatened countermeasures earlier on Friday. Crypto’s total market capitalization is down over 9% on the day to $3.8 trillion.

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