“Trump’s trade war is affecting the entire market,” said BTC Markets CEO Caroline Bowler. The former US president’s decision to impose tariffs on major trading partners led to a sell-off in cryptocurrencies.

The MVIS CryptoCompare Small-Cap index plunged 32% over two days – the steepest decline since May 2022, when the TerraUSD stablecoin collapsed. Ether dropped by 27% before partially recovering, while Bitcoin showed more resilience, losing around 1% in early London trading.

Stock markets in Europe and Asia also reacted with declines after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on the EU, in addition to existing levies on Canada, Mexico, and China.

In the derivatives market, more than $2.2 billion in long positions were liquidated in 24 hours, which CoinGlass called the “biggest crypto crash.” The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by $360 billion, while memecoins linked to Donald and Melania Trump lost 75% and 90% of their peak values, respectively.