Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a dramatic flash crash, plummeting from $122,000 to a low of $102,000 before rebounding to around $112K on Saturday
This crypto bloodbath represented a roughly 17 percent drop, led to the liquidation of over $19 billion in leveraged positions within the cryptocurrency market. Ethereum (ETH) fell more than 20 percent to $3,440, while many other altcoins suffered even sharper intraday drops ranging from 50 to 90 percent.
The decline in the cryptocurrency market began gradually but intensified significantly, which Coinglass described as “the largest liquidation event in crypto history.”
Although there was some hesitancy in the market before Friday, a post by Trump caused Bitcoin to drop by more than 12%. The leading cryptocurrency, which had reached a record high of over $125,000 earlier in the week, was trading just below $113,000 by Saturday morning in London.
Coinglass warned that the total amount could be substantially higher since exchanges do not always report such orders in real time.
Data from Coinglass revealed that 1,662,647 traders were liquidated in a single day, resulting in total liquidations amounting to $19.31 billion.
The largest single liquidation order occurred on Hyperliquid for the ETH-USDT pair, valued at $203.36 million
This event marked the worst one-day liquidation incident in the cryptocurrency market’s history, surpassing previous crises like the 2022 LUNA collapse ($1.2 billion liquidated), the FTX implosion ($1.6 billion), and the March 2020 COVID crash ($1.4 billion). The cryptocurrency market cap, which recently peaked at $4.27 trillion, fell to between $3.8 trillion and $4 trillion, resulting in a loss of $250–400 billion.
The exchanges most impacted were Hyperliquid (over $10 billion), Bybit (over $4.5 billion), and Binance (over $2.5 billion).
This incident highlights how leverage-driven volatility can be exacerbated by macroeconomic factors, creating widespread anxiety among traders across various platforms and social networks.
Many in the cryptocurrency industry anticipate similar outcomes every fall because October has historically seen high prices for Bitcoin.
President Trump acknowledged that his actions could be “potentially painful” for Americans, as he announced the cancellation of a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and imposed a “massive increase” in tariffs on Chinese goods entering the United States.
The decline began late Friday evening and continued to worsen into the night. ETH rose slightly to $3,800 after crashing from $4.3K, the largest one-day event since the FTX collapse in 2022.
President Donald Trump stated that there would be a 100 percent increase in tariffs on “any critical software” imports from China due to China’s restrictions on exporting rare earth minerals used for manufacturing tech-related products. This led to a decline in the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and several other cryptocurrencies.
Trump expressed concerns regarding China’s handling of rare earth mineral exports, claiming that China has taken an “extraordinarily aggressive position.”
He noted, “It has just been learned that China has adopted an extraordinarily aggressive stance on trade, as they sent a very hostile letter to the world announcing their intention to impose large-scale export controls on virtually every product they manufacture and some not even produced by them, starting November 1, 2025.”
He noted, “It has just been learned that China has adopted an extraordinarily aggressive stance on trade, as they sent a very hostile letter to the world announcing their intention to impose large-scale export controls on virtually every product they manufacture and some not even produced by them, starting November 1, 2025.”
The U.S president indicated that all countries could be affected by this situation, describing it as a long-term plan that China has been developing for years. Trump labeled the diplomatic engagement with China amid this plan as a moral embarrassment and unprecedented in global trade.
However, some Bitcoin supporters remain optimistic about future price trends. Samson Mow, founder of Jan3, stated in a post on X that “Uptober” is still 21 days away.
Michael van de Poppe, founder of MN Trading Capital, asserted that “this is the bottom of the current cycle,” referencing a previous crash during COVID-19. Some analysts took a longer-term view, with one Bitcoin Libertarian predicting,
“In a few years, Bitcoin will plummet from $1 million to $0.8 million in a matter of hours, and we’ll all be discussing a new record high in liquidations”.