Trump’s trade war wipes out $500M in crypto, risk assets crater

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs sent the crypto market tumbling along with all the major financial markets. Bitcoin (BTC) nosedived 4% to revisit $82,000, Solana (SOL) crashed 7%, while Ethereum (ETH) dipped 3% to hover around the $1,800 mark.

The cumulative digital assets market cap declined by another 3% over the day to stand at $2.67 trillion. The crypto fear and greed index depicts that investor sentiment has dipped into the “extreme fear” territory. Risk assets took an instant hit as stocks tanked and even gold hit fresh record highs as investors fled for safety.

Bitcoin bleeds as trade war heats up

The data provided by Coinglass shows that more than 163,000 traders got liquidated in the last 24 hours. Around $500 million in futures got liquidated as markets reeled from a global trade war. The largest single liquidation order of ETH/USD valued at $11.97 million happened on Binance.

Bitcoin futures alone saw $172 million in long and short liquidations, ETH followed with $120 million, and smaller altcoins recorded $50 million vanishing. Over $112 million of the liquidated bets (63%) set on BTC price action turned out to be short bets.

Bitcoin price declined by a heavy 17% over the past 60 days and Trump’s tariff bombshell has added more selling pressure to it. BTC is now down by 23% from its all-time high of $109,000. It is trading at an average price of $83,258 with a trading volume of $53 billion.

– Crypto markets saw $486.55M in liquidations in 24 hours, affecting over 157K traders.

– The largest single liquidation was $11.97M on Binance in the ETHUSDT pair.

– Bitcoin shorts were wiped out on most exchanges, while BitMEX saw long liquidations.

– Liquidations hit $3.72M… pic.twitter.com/BzDD4idnYj

— Cryptopolitan (@CPOfficialtx) April 3, 2025

Trump slapped the entire world with tariffs sending Asia-Pacific markets into a full meltdown mode. From Australia to China, stocks are getting destroyed. Meanwhile, gold hit an all-time high as investors ran for cover. Gold traded at $3,130 per ounce on Thursday after initially hitting $3,160.

Tech tanks, Asia melts down

The US imposed hefty reciprocal tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories. A 25% tax is imposed on auto imports, 10% on all US exporters, and China got slapped with a 50% hike on key goods. India got slammed with 26% tariffs while South Korea and Australia have to contend with 25% and 10% taxes, respectively.

White House charts claim other countries have been “currency manipulating” and using trade barriers against the US and now, it’s payback time.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 4% before recovering slightly. South Korea’s Kospi barely survived a 3% drop while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slid 1.52%.

India’s markets are wobbling as the Nifty 50 dropped by 0.35% and Sensex fell 0.36%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dropped nearly 1%. US Tech stocks also took a major hit in the after-hours trading. Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ: HOOD) went down by 10%, and Tesla and Amazon flashed a 6% dip. However, Nvidia, AMD, Alphabet and Meta all were spotted down by 5% each in the pre-market trading session.

The Nasdaq 100 is now down -15% since:

1. Jamie Dimon sold $234M of JP Morgan stock, $JPM

2. Warren Buffett reported a record $334B cash balance

Buffet and Dimon win again. Are they buying yet? https://t.co/jYvB8lmE9w

— The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) April 3, 2025

It is expected that the S&P 500 is set to erase $2 trillion when the market opens. The Nasdaq 100 is on track to open just 3% away from entering its first bear market since 2022.

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