Friday took a turn for the worse for cryptocurrency as U.S. President Trump announced an additional 100% tariff on China, triggering a rapid decline in prices during a flash crash.
Bitcoin , initially trading around $117,000 following Trump’s comments about tariffs, plummeted below $110,000, down 12% in the past 24 hours. Ether crashed 16% below $3,700, while other major altcoins , Solana and saw declines of 20%-30%. The native tokens of , Chainlink and Aave dropped as much as 40%
Friday’s crash led to over $7 billion in liquidations from traders who anticipated rising prices, per CoinGlass.
This latest escalation in trade tensions comes as Trump declared he would raise tariffs on Chinese goods in reaction to China’s restrictions on rare earth mineral exports. Following the closure of traditional markets for the week, he posted on Truth Social late Friday afternoon that the new 100% tariff would take effect on November 1.
“On November 1, we will also impose export controls on any and all essential software,” he added.
Bitcoin dropped $3,000 right after that post was published.
The drastic price fluctuations have drawn comparisons to the market crash in March 2020 that was triggered by the lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Covid-level devastation,” prominent trader Bob Loukas stated in an X post about the crash. “Wow, extremely rough, but also a potential major shakeout,” he continued.
“Tough day,” remarked Ram Ahluwalia, founder of Lumida Wealth. “The combination of Trump’s announcement and the ‘overbought’ market led to a steep fall.”
“I recognize there’s a lot of anxiety present, and this drop ranks among the top 3 ever,” well-followed trader Pentoshi noted, adding that altcoins fell just as dramatically as during the COVID market crash. “Countless individuals are suffering right now, myself included.”
“The altcoin market was utterly destroyed,” commented Zaheer Ebtikar, founder and CIO of Split Capital. “We are at levels not seen in over a year concerning altcoins. Complete leverage reset and market dislocation.”
Read more: Trump Tariff Threat on China Sends Bitcoin Plummeting Below $119K
UPDATE (Oct. 10, 2025, 21:55 UTC): Includes revised liquidation data.
UPDATE (Oct. 10, 2025, 22:12 UTC): Includes remarks from traders.
