- The crypto market turned red after a fresh tariff threat from President Trump.
- Trump threatened to stop imports of cooking oil from China over soybean purchases.
- Bitcoin fell 2.4% and Ether fell 3.3% within an hour of the post.
One single social media post once again sent a shock of fear through the cryptocurrency market. A new, unconventional tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump triggered a wave of sell-offs, pushing the entire digital asset space into the red.
The abrupt downturn serves as a stark reminder of how highly sensitive the market is to the president’s statements. That fragility was painfully exposed just last week during a historic liquidation event.
An “economically hostile act” and the market’s immediate reaction
The catalyst for the recent sell-off was a Truth Social post on October 14 in which President Trump criticized Beijing’s trade behavior, singling out its alleged failure to buy U.S. soybeans.
“I think China is intentionally not buying our soybeans and causing hardship for our soybean farmers, which is an economically hostile act,” Trump wrote.
We are thinking about cutting off business with China dealing with cooking oil and other trade items, as retaliation. For example, we can easily produce cooking oil ourselves; we don’t have to buy it from China.
The market reaction was swift and severe. Within an hour of the post, Bitcoin (BTC) fell about 2.4% to roughly $112,861, while Ether (ETH) declined around 3.3% to $4,108.
Total crypto market capitalization dropped roughly 2.9%, a clear and immediate response to the latest escalation in the trade spat.
The shadow of past liquidations
While meaningful, this latest sell-off was modest compared with the shock that rocked the market last week.
A previous threat from Trump to impose 100% tariffs on all Chinese imports sparked a violent, historic crash.
At its peak, that “bloodbath” wiped out more than $19.2 billion in leveraged positions, marking the largest single-day liquidation event in crypto history and overwhelming major exchanges such as Binance and Coinbase.
The memory of that carnage remains fresh, leaving the market deeply fragile and jittery.
Even prior to Trump’s most recent post, crypto analysts had warned of an imminent market collapse. One prominent analyst advised traders to exit positions on October 13.
A market on a knife’s edge
Latest Coinglass data show the market is still bleeding from last week’s wounds.
Over the past 24 hours, an additional $715.13 million in positions were liquidated, the vast majority being long positions held by bullish traders.
This new wave of selling, sparked by a presidential post about soybeans and cooking oil, highlights the strange and unpredictable forces now shaping the digital asset space.
In a market still haunted by a historic crash and swayed by the whims of a single social feed, the only certainty is the continued uncertainty that lies ahead.