Historic $10 Billion Crypto Liquidation Shakes Markets Amid Tariff Fears

The cryptocurrency market has just witnessed its largest-ever liquidation event, with Bybit CEO Ben Zhou suggesting total losses may be in the $8–$10 billion range—far above the $2 billion figure reported by popular trackers like Coinglass. This discrepancy, Zhou says, stems from API limitations preventing many exchanges from providing real-time liquidation data. In other words, the headline numbers don’t reveal the true scale of traders’ forced liquidations, which soared after sudden price drops in major coins.

Geopolitical tensions amplified selling pressure. President Donald Trump’s newly imposed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China rattled global markets, and risk-averse investors sold off speculative assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, contributing to the mass liquidation wave. Bitcoin lost around 5% in 24 hours, while Ethereum sank over 17%. Dozens of altcoins cratered even further, forcing heavily leveraged positions to close en masse.

This unprecedented liquidation overshadowed past crashes tied to the FTX debacle and the COVID era. Now, market participants wonder if the aggressive unwind could spark a quicker rebound—flushing out weak hands—or prolong the downturn as uncertainty around tariffs and macroeconomic conditions continues to plague the sector.