- The cryptocurrency market turned red after a new tariff threat from President Trump.
- Trump threatened to halt imports of cooking oil from China in response to soybean purchases.
- Bitcoin fell 2.4% and ether dropped 3.3% within an hour of the post.
One social media post once again spread fear through the cryptocurrency market, as an unconventional tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a fresh wave of selling and pushed the broader digital-asset space into the red.
The sudden slowdown is a harsh reminder of how acutely sensitive the market is to the president’s statements — a fragility exposed dramatically during last week’s historic liquidation event.
An “economically hostile act” and an immediate market reaction
The trigger for the latest sell-off was a Truth Social post on October 14 in which President Trump attacked Beijing’s trade behavior, particularly its failure to buy U.S. soybeans.
“I believe China is deliberately not buying our soybeans and causing hardship for our soybean producers, which is an economically hostile act,” Trump wrote.
“We are considering ending business with China regarding cooking oil and other trade items as retaliation. For example, we can easily produce cooking oil ourselves; we don’t need to buy it from China.”
The market reaction was swift and severe. Within an hour of the post, bitcoin (BTC) had fallen about 2.4% to roughly $112,861, while ether (ETH) declined about 3.3% to $4,108.
Total crypto market capitalization slid roughly 2.9%, a clear and direct response to the latest escalation in the president’s trade rhetoric.
The specter of past liquidations
Although significant, this sell-off is a smaller echo compared with the earthquake that rocked the market last week.
A prior threat from Trump to impose 100% tariffs on all Chinese imports had triggered a violent and historic crash.
At its peak, that “bloodbath” led to more than $19.2 billion of leveraged positions being liquidated, marking the largest single-day wipeout in crypto history and overwhelming major trading platforms.
The memory of that carnage remains fresh, leaving the market deeply fragile and jittery.
Even before the latest post, crypto analysts had warned of an imminent crash; a popular analyst advised traders on October 13 to leave the market ahead of a predicted “big dump.”
A market on a razor’s edge
Recent data from Coinglass show the market is still bleeding from last week’s wounds.
Over the past 24 hours, an additional $715.13 million of positions were liquidated, the vast majority of them long bullish positions.
This new wave of selling — sparked by a presidential post about soybeans and cooking oil — underscores the strange and unpredictable forces now shaping the digital-asset space.
In a market haunted by the memory of a historic crash and driven by the unpredictable impulses of a single social-media post, the only certainty is that more uncertainty lies ahead.