The cryptocurrency market faced one of its worst days on Saturday, October 11, losing more than $19 billion in value within hours. Data from Coinglass showed it was the largest liquidation event in crypto history. The crash followed an unexpected announcement from US President Donald Trump, who said the US would impose 100% tariffs on China and introduce new export controls on software.
What makes the Bitcoin crash?
Trump’s decision immediately shook investor confidence and caused panic selling. Many traders moved their money into safer assets such as stablecoins or government bonds. Bitcoin and Ethereum were hit the hardest. Bitcoin, which had reached a record high of more than $125,000 earlier in the week, dropped by over 12% to below $113,000. Ethereum also fell sharply as traders rushed to close their positions.
Coinglass reported that more than 1.6 million traders were liquidated in the last 24 hours. Over $7 billion worth of positions were sold in just one hour on Friday. The total losses could be much higher since some exchanges report liquidations only once per second.
The situation worsened when Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, experienced major technical problems. Many users said their accounts froze, and stop-loss orders failed. Some smaller coins, such as Enjin and Cosmos, briefly showed prices near zero before recovering. Binance said the problems were caused by heavy trading activity and assured users that their funds were safe. However, critics accused the exchange of worsening the crash and benefiting from the chaos.
Market analysts are now worried about the broader effects of the crash. Brian Strugats from Multicoin Capital said investors are concerned about counterparty exposure, meaning how losses might spread between trading firms. Some experts estimate the total liquidations could reach $30 billion. Caroline Mauron of Orbit Markets warned that if Bitcoin falls below $100,000, it could signal the end of its three-year bull run.
The shock also spread beyond cryptocurrencies. Global stock markets, oil prices, and commodities fell sharply, while gold and US government bonds gained value as investors looked for safer options. Ravi Doshi from FalconX said his firm saw unusually high demand for downside protection, showing the level of fear in the market.
Vincent Liu from Kronos Research said the crash started because of the new tariffs but grew worse due to excessive leverage among institutional traders. He added that the event showed how sensitive cryptocurrencies have become to global political and economic changes.
