Donald Trump’s tariffs on China: After the announcement of an additional 100% tariffs on Chinese imports in the US, the Donald Trump administration increased the China tariffs to 130% (30% existing + 100% additional). The US administration has made it clear that an additional 100% tariff on Chinese imports will take effect on November 1, 2025. Following the announcement, a significant cryptocurrency crash was observed. Crypto majors like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Binance, etc., witnessed a big retreat after this announcement.

According to experts, Donald Trump’s additional tariffs on China are the major reason for the significant decline in cryptocurrency prices on Friday. They stated that the Chinese are among the major investors in cryptocurrencies, and the announcement of additional 100% tariffs has weakened the sentiment. They expected further growth in the virtual assets as it would take some time to adjust to the new tariffs.

Why are cryptocurrencies falling?

Speaking on the reason for the fall in cryptocurrencies, Anuj Gupta, Director at Ya Wealth, said, “The Chinese are one of the major investors in cryptocurrencies. Following the announcement of an additional 100% Trump’s tariffs on China, sell-off pressure in virtual assets was widely accepted. So, this fall is on the expected lines, and we are expecting some more selling, especially on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Binance, as it attracts a big chunk of the Chinese investments.”

Calling the developments in cryptocurrency trade a ‘Black Swan Event’, David Jeong, chief executive officer at Tread.fi, said, “It is likely that many institutions did not expect this level of volatility, and with how leveraged perpetual futures are designed, many large traders.”

Advising Bitcoin investors to use strict stop loss, Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, said, “The next major support for Bitcoin is at the $1,00,000 level, which if it falls through would signal the end of a three-year-long bull cycle for the token.”

Donald Trump’s China tariffs impact

More than 1.6 million traders lost over $19 billion on cryptocurrency bets as the market crashed from Donald Trump’s announcement of additional 100 per cent tariffs on China, according to a Bloomberg report.

Citing 24-hour data from Coinglass, the report noted that more than $19 billion has been wiped out in the “largest liquidation event in crypto history”, which impacted more than 1.6 million traders. It added that more than $7 billion of those positions were sold in less than one hour of trading on October 10.

According to data on CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency market cap has dived to $3.74 trillion from the record-high $4.30 trillion level, the previous day. Trading volumes as of the market close were recorded at $490.23 billion.

Bitcoin retreated on Friday, as US-China trade tensions reignited, after racing to record highs earlier in the week as persistent rate-cut bets and signs of some cooling in geopolitical tensions helped boost risk.

Bitcoin was trading at $105,505.4 on Friday, down 13.15% on the day.

The move downwards pushed Bitcoin’s market cap down to $2,150.1B, or 58.98% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin’s market cap was $2,488.1B.

Disclaimer: The views and recommendations made above are those of individual analysts or broking companies, and not of Mint. We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.