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Crypto Market Sees $300M Liquidations as Trump Tariff Threats Flush Late Bulls
The leverage flush happened as crypto prices quickly dropped on renewed trade war fears, with BTC slipping 3% from near record highs.
Updated May 23, 2025, 5:27 p.m. Published May 23, 2025, 1:53 p.m.
What to know:
- Over $300 million in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated after Trump's tariff threats, CoinGlass shows.
- Bitcoin and major altcoins fell 3% to 4% following the proposed tariffs.
- Hyperliquid trader "James Wynn," making news for opening a $1.1 billion BTC long bet, currently sitting on $7.5 million unrealized losses on the trading position.
Crypto traders betting on a steady bitcoin rally got a sharp reminder of headline risk from Donald Trump's latest tariff threats.
Over $300 million worth of leveraged derivatives positions were liquidated across centralized exchanges in the past four hours, according to CoinGlass data, as crypto prices plunged following the news.
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Nearly all liquidations came from long positions—traders betting on higher prices. BTC longs accounted for $107 million of the total, while Ethereum's ether followed with close to $87 million. Other tokens, including Solana's SOL , dogecoin , and SUI saw liquidations ranging between $10 million and $18 million.
"Nice aggregate flush of long leverage and de-risk selling from spot," well-followed crypto trader Skew noted in an X post early Friday. "All driven by headlines once again."
The sell-off came after Trump proposed a 50% tariff on imports from the European Union starting next month, along with a 25% tariff on iPhones manufactured outside the U.S., reigniting fears of an escalating trade war.
As a result, BTC and major altcoins such as Ether , XRP , and Cardano fell 3% to 4%, while smaller-cap tokens like Uniswap and SUI dropped 5% to 7% over the past 24 hours.
Crypto trader named James Wynn, who gained attention recently opening a $1.1 billion BTC long bet with 40x leverage on the Hyperliquid exchange, also slipped underwater on the massive position. Currently, the trader is sitting on $7.5 million of unrealized losses, and the position could be liquidated if BTC slips to $102,000, according to a screenshot shared on X.
Interestingly, the long liquidations came amid a recent unusual tilt toward short positions in BTC derivatives despite record prices, CoinDesk reported on Thursday.
Read more: Why Are Bitcoin Traders Aggressively Shorting as BTC Hits New Record High?
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