Crypto market suffers largest single-day liquidation in history

A sharp crypto sell-off has triggered liquidations for over 1.5 million traders in the last 24 hours, wiping out roughly $9.55 billion in open interest, according to CoinGlass. President Donald Trump’s retaliatory tariffs caused the market’s downturn.

Of the $9.55 billion lost, about $8 billion came from long positions and $1.55 billion from shorts, with Bitcoin and Ethereum being hit the hardest. Bitcoin leads with $1.37 billion in liquidations, followed by Ethereum at $1.26 billion. HTX also handled the biggest single wipeout: $87.53 million in BTC/USDT, according to CoinGlass.

President Trump called on China to change its policy by November 1

Cryptocurrency prices plummeted after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans for an additional 100% tariffs on Chinese goods, along with new software export restrictions.

Nearly all cryptocurrencies plunged in two major steps after Trump warned of the new levies. Bitcoin plunged more than 12% following Trump’s Truth Social announcement, pulling back from its fresh all-time high near $125,000 to around $113,000 as of Friday morning. It even touched an intraday low just below $102,000 late Friday before recovering slightly. Now the token is changing hands at $111,327.

Ravi Doshi, co-head of markets at prime broker FalconX, commented, “A renewed trade war between China and the US erupted on Friday, causing uncertainty in markets and a rout in risk assets,” adding that the firm’s derivatives team saw a surge in interest for downside hedges during the session.

Trump’s decision to announce new tariffs came in response to Beijing’s latest policy change. On Thursday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said foreign exporters will need licenses for products containing more than 0.1% of rare earth materials sourced from China. 

Some reports suggested Trump canceled his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, he later indicated he’s still open to meeting and might roll back the tariff plan if Beijing reverses its policy by November 1.

Should the tariffs be called off, crypto spot prices may bounce back, but the liquidations would remain final.

A whale managed to profit on Hyperliquid

In terms of leveraged positions, the crypto market lost over $19 billion within 24 hours. According to CoinGlass data, longs accounted for the bulk of the losses, at around $16.75 billion, while shorts incurred $2.47 billion in losses. Again, the leading losses were incurred by Bitcoin at $5.34 billion and Ethereum at $4.39 billion, with Solana contributing $2 billion, and other altcoins accounting for an additional $1.5 billion.

There have been warnings from analysts that, if sentiment does not quicken sooner rather than later, this huge wave of liquidations might deepen the downturn. Tech gauges – such as RSI and MACD – across most currencies remain heavily oversold, which suggests more short-term pressure will not be far off.

Despite the widespread losses, at least one major player on Hyperliquid managed to profit, taking short positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum worth hundreds of millions and earning an estimated $190 million. 

Crypto trader by the domain name, mlmabc, who had been tracking the whale’s movements, confirmed, “The BTC whale closed 90% of his BTC short and fully closed his ETH short, making around $190–$200M profit in just one day on Hyperliquid. The crazy part is that he shorted another 9 figs worth of BTC and ETH minutes before the cascade happened.”