Crypto Market Sees $300M Liquidations as Trump Tariff Threats Flush Late Bulls

Crypto traders betting on a steady bitcoin BTC rally got a sharp reminder of headline risk from Donald Trump’s latest tariff threats. Over $300 million worth of leveraged derivatives positions were liquidated across centralized exchanges in the past four hours, according to CoinGlass data , as crypto prices plunged following the news. Nearly all liquidations came from long positions—traders betting on higher prices. BTC longs accounted for $107 million of the total, while Ethereum’s ether ETH followed with close to $87 million. Other tokens, including Solana’s SOL SOL, dogecoin DOGE, and SUI SUI saw liquidations ranging between $10 million and $18 million. “Nice aggregate flush of long leverage and de-risk selling from spot,” well-followed crypto trader Skew noted in an X post early Friday. “All driven by headlines once again.” The sell-off came after Trump proposed a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union starting next month, along with a 25% tariff on iPhones manufactured outside the U.S., reigniting fears of an escalating trade war. As a result, BTC and major altcoins such as Ether ETH, XRP XRP, and Cardano ADA fell 3% to 4%, while smaller-cap tokens like Uniswap UNI and SUI SUI dropped 5% to 7% over the past 24 hours. Crypto trader named James Wynn, who gained attention recently opening a $1.1 billion BTC long bet with 40x leverage on the Hyperliquid exchange, also slipped underwater on the massive position. Currently, the trader is sitting on $7.5 million of unrealized losses, and the position could be liquidated if BTC slips to $102,000, according to a screenshot shared on X . Interestingly, the long liquidations came amid a recent unusual tilt toward short positions in BTC derivatives despite record prices, CoinDesk reported on Thursday. Read more: Why Are Bitcoin Traders Aggressively Shorting as BTC Hits New Record High?

Source: CoinDesk