What happened in crypto today? Trump shock, $1.7B liquidations & more…

The market volatility following U.S President Donald Trump’s plans to pick Kevin Warsh as the next Fed chair triggered a nearly 10% drop in gold, dragging Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto market with it. 

The results? 

Over $1.7 billion in positions were liquidated in the past 24 hours, affecting over 270K traders, with leveraged bulls bearing the largest losses of $1.6 billion, according to Coinglass data. 

The overall selling pressure threatened to crack BTC’s $80K support level, with most large-cap altcoins posting average 7-10% price declines. 

BTC, in particular, briefly slipped to $81k before stabilizing to $82.3k at press time. For Ethereum [ETH], the $2.8K support was lost, but at press time, the altcoin appeared ready to reclaim it.

On the other hand, Solana [SOL] dropped by 10% to 114 while Ripple [XRP] slipped below $1.8, at press time. 

Overall, about $200 billion was wiped out from the crypto market cap, bringing it from $3.0 trillion to $2.8 trillion in the past 24 hours. 

Investors exit the crypto market

But this was not just another risk-off, forcing some traders and investors into the sidelines. Some were completely existing markets, as evidenced by redemptions across major stablecoins USDT and USDC. 

Earlier in the week, over $2 billion of capital exited the stablecoins sector, reducing the dry powder needed to ignite a market rally if sentiment improves. 

In this week alone, close to $5 billion has been redeemed from Circle’s USDC, while Tether’s USDT has shed $1 billion in market supply in the past 30 days. 

Moreover, the leverage flush may signal a healthy pause, but investor exits, reflected in stablecoin dynamics, highlight another risk for BTC and the broader crypto market.

For Fundstrat’s Tom Lee, however, the market uncertainty and turbulence will continue until the new Fed chair is confirmed. 

In fact, according to Arkham data, the top Options volumes in the past 24 hours were puts (bearish bets) hedging against downside risks to $78K and $75K in the next two weeks. 

This underscored extreme market caution as institutional players positioned themselves for a potential dip below $80K. It was unclear whether altcoins would continue bleeding if such a scenario unfolded. 

Final Thoughts 

• Trump’s planned announcement of the next Fed chair sparked risk-off mode across all markets 
• Some sophisticated players were now betting on a potential BTC dip to $78K or $75K if bearish pressure persists