Cryptos see worst sell-off in history! $19 billion gone after Donald Trump's new 100% tariffs on China crashes markets

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 have been wiped out in the “largest liquidation event in crypto history”, that 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.

It further quoted Brian Strugats, head trader at Multicoin Capital state that estimates place the total liquidation over $30 billion, amid fears of a broader market contagion.

Crypto update: Bitcoin, Ethereum price on Oct 11

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

Among the cryptocurrencies, the world's largest coin Bitcoin held 59.8 per cent dominance, with second player Ethereum comprising 12.2 per cent, and the remaining tokens making up 27.9 per cent of the pie.

At time of writing, at 12.42 pm on October 11, Bitcoin was down 8.05 per cent to $1,11,542.91, with market cap of $2.22 trillion and trading volume at $183.88 billion, a 145.06 jump due to the sell-off, CoinMarketCap data showed.

Further, Ethereum was down 12.71 per cent at $3,778.31, with market cap of $456.05 billion, and trading volumes up 148.68 per cent to $112.75 billion over the past 24 hours, it added.

Crypto market view: What do experts say?

According to Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, the next major support for Bitcoin is at the $1,00,000 level, which if its falls through would “signal the end” of a three-year long bull cycle for the token.

David Jeong, chief executive officer at Tread.fi told the publication that the market is experiencing a “black swan event”, adding, “It is likely that many institutions did not expect this level of volatility and with how leveraged perpetual futures are designed, many large traders, including institutions, would have gotten liquidated.”

A black swan event in the stock market is often a market crash that exceeds six standard deviations, making it exceedingly rare from a probabilistic standpoint, according to Investopedia.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)