Crypto fell on Oct 30 after Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping ended their Busan meeting without a full tariff climbdown. Trump said he would cut tariffs to 47% from 57%, not cancel the earlier threat, and markets read it as a short truce, not a real deal.
At the same time, the Federal Reserve kept pressure on risk assets. Chair Jerome Powell said the December rate cut is “not guaranteed,” so traders could not price cheaper money for Q4. That message arrived together with the weak U.S.–China outcome and pushed leveraged crypto positions into liquidation.
Then the derivatives side broke. The liquidation map shows 24 hour liquidations at about $812.58 million across 164,147 traders, with $612.51 million in longs and $200.08 million in shorts. BTC alone took $122.22 million, ETH about $22.31 million, and SOL about $9.36 million. One $11 million BTCUSD order on Bybit was the largest single forced close. That is the mechanical part of the crash.
Trump–Xi outcome kept trade risk alive
Trump and Xi met for about 100 minutes in Busan. They said they were “in agreement on many things,” but they did not publish a full tariff rollback. Trump said China would keep rare earth exports flowing and resume soybean buys. That helps sentiment, but it does not erase the October tariff shock that scared risk markets earlier in the month. So traders kept a defensive stance.
Because the outcome was only partial, markets that had gone long “for a breakthrough” were left without a catalyst. In crypto, that shows up first in BTC perps. When price stalled after the press comments, over-levered longs started to hit their limits and exchanges closed them at market.
After BTC, altcoins reacted to the same headline. Solana, TRUMP, AVAX and other names on the map show smaller but simultaneous blocks. That pattern means it was one macro headline, not ten different project stories.
Fed message removed the second support
Powell’s press line said the Fed cut 25 bps now, but December is “far from” certain. Markets were pricing another cut. After he spoke, stock indexes turned lower and crypto followed. In crypto, tighter rate expectations translate into lower appetite for high leverage. So any other bad news, like an only-halfway Trump–Xi meeting, triggers forced selling.
Because the Fed did not promise December, traders could not say “we will get cheaper funding soon.”
Later, the 4 hour panel confirmed it: $162.60 million in longs versus $71.95 million in shorts. That shows the market kept clearing leverage while the U.S.–China headlines were still running.
