Cryptocurrency markets experienced unprecedented liquidations during Asian trading hours as President Trump's threat of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports triggered a massive risk-off movement. The market turmoil wiped out approximately $16 billion in long positions, creating one of the most significant liquidation events in crypto history.
Bitcoin briefly fell below $110,000 before recovering to $113,294, while Ethereum dropped to $3,844. The CoinDesk 20 Index recorded a 12.1% decline as the total crypto market capitalization fell to $3.87 trillion.
Data from CoinGlass revealed that $19.13 billion in total liquidations occurred, with $16.7 billion coming from long positions. The scale of Friday's liquidation event surpasses both the FTX collapse in 2022 and the COVID-19 market crash in terms of absolute dollar value, though it represents a smaller percentage of today's larger market capitalization.
The Ethena team confirmed that USDe stablecoin operations remained functional throughout the volatility, noting the stablecoin became increasingly overcollateralized as short positions generated unrealized gains. Market uncertainty was further amplified by delayed economic data releases due to the U.S. government shutdown.