Crypto Just Had a Flash Crash. Here's What You Need to Know

Group 1 - The cryptocurrency sector experienced a significant flash crash on October 10, triggered by President Trump's threat to increase tariffs on China, leading to a panic that wiped hundreds of billions of dollars off the market cap [1][4] - Bitcoin dropped over 12% from its previous week's peak, while Ethereum saw even larger declines, and meme coins like Dogecoin briefly fell by about 50% [5][6] - The crash was exacerbated by excessive financial leverage in the market, with approximately $19 billion in forced liquidations of leveraged positions reported, marking the largest liquidation event on record [7][8] Group 2 - The initial price shock from the tariff announcement led to a cascade of liquidations as many leveraged positions were simultaneously affected, highlighting vulnerabilities in the financial plumbing of the cryptocurrency market [2][6] - Non-Bitcoin and non-Ethereum assets experienced a 33% drop on average, with some tokens losing up to 99.9% of their value in a very short time frame [6][7]