Trump Tariff Escalation Triggers Record Bitcoin Liquidation
President Donald Trump announced an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports and new export controls, triggering a broad risk-off move and the largest crypto liquidation cascade then recorded. Bitcoin plunged from the low-$120,000s to roughly $104,800 as more than $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out in about 24 hours.
On October 10, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States would impose an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports beginning November 1 and introduce export controls on critical U.S.-made software. The announcement sharply escalated an already tense U.S.-China trade dispute and hit global risk markets almost immediately. Bitcoin, which had set a record above $126,000 only days earlier, fell violently and traded as low as roughly $104,800 during the selloff.
The speed of the decline collided with unusually heavy leverage across cryptocurrency derivatives markets. As prices moved through liquidation levels, exchanges automatically closed leveraged long positions, forcing additional selling into already-thin liquidity. More than $19 billion in crypto positions were liquidated in roughly 24 hours, making the episode the largest liquidation event then recorded for the sector. Bitcoin was not the only asset affected, but its sharp reversal from a fresh all-time high made it the central market reference point.
The historical importance lies in the combination of external trigger and internal market structure. The tariff announcement was a conventional geopolitical and macroeconomic shock; the magnitude of the Bitcoin move was amplified by leverage, fragmented liquidity, and forced deleveraging. Contemporary Bitcoin podcasts and market analysts repeatedly treated the event as more than an ordinary correction because it exposed how quickly a highly leveraged market could cascade when an unexpected political announcement changed risk expectations.
In retrospect, October 10 became one of the defining turning points of the 2025 cycle. Bitcoin partially recovered in the following days but did not regain its October 6 record, and the month ultimately closed lower for the first time in October since 2018. The event did not, by itself, explain every subsequent movement in the bear market, but it marked the rupture between the cycle high and the prolonged decline that followed.