Crypto traders anticipating a consistent bitcoin rally were abruptly reminded of the headline risk stemming from Donald Trump’s recent tariff threats.
More than $300 million worth of leveraged derivatives positions were liquidated across centralized exchanges in the last four hours, as crypto prices fell following the news.
Almost all liquidations were from long positions—traders betting on rising prices. BTC longs constituted $107 million of the total, while Ethereum’s ether followed with nearly $87 million. Other tokens, including Solana’s SOL, dogecoin, and SUI experienced liquidations between $10 million and $18 million.
“We witnessed a significant aggregate sell-off of long leverage and de-risk selling in the spot market,” noted a prominent crypto trader in an X post early Friday. “All spurred by the headlines once again.”
This sell-off occurred after Trump suggested a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union starting next month, along with a 25% levy on iPhones produced outside the U.S., reigniting concerns of a trade war escalation.
As a result, BTC and major altcoins like Ether, XRP, and Cardano fell by 3% to 4%, while smaller-cap tokens including Uniswap and SUI dropped by 5% to 7% over the last 24 hours.
A crypto trader named James Wynn, who gained attention recently for opening a $1.1 billion BTC long position with 40x leverage on the Hyperliquid exchange, also found his position underwater. Currently, he’s sitting on $7.5 million of unrealized losses, and the position could be liquidated if BTC drops to $102,000, according to a screenshot shared on X.
Interestingly, the long liquidations occurred despite a recent unusual inclination toward short positions in BTC derivatives, despite record prices, RialCenter reported recently.
Read more: Why Are Bitcoin Traders Aggressively Shorting as BTC Hits New Record High?
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