$BTC Crypto Market Wiped Out Nearly $1 Billion in Longs as Trump-Musk Clash Rattles Sentiment

A wave of panic-driven selling swept through the cryptocurrency market over the past 24 hours, triggering nearly $1 billion in liquidations and underscoring just how brittle sentiment remains in the face of macroeconomic and political shocks.

According to data compiled by Coinglass, more than $980 million in leveraged positions were liquidated in the span of a single day, with long positions accounting for over $876 million of the total. The data shows that over 223,000 traders were affected, although the true magnitude could be even higher, as the figures are drawn from publicly available sources and may not capture the full scope of losses across all platforms.

A Fragile Market Meets Political Turbulence

At the center of the market’s swift downturn was an unexpected and very public fallout between President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose online spat over tax and spending policies sparked concern among investors already grappling with a volatile macroeconomic environment.

Musk’s blunt criticism of Trump’s new economic bill — which he labeled a "disgusting abomination" — ignited speculation over political instability and its potential ripple effects. Combined with renewed fears over escalating tariffs, the incident proved too much for a market heavily skewed toward leveraged optimism.

“The market was already stretched, and this added shock created a cascading effect,” said Vincent Liu, Chief Investment Officer at Kronos Research. “When sentiment is this fragile and leverage this high, even a modest trigger can cause massive liquidations through automatic sell-offs.”

Bitcoin, Ether Hit Hard

The brunt of the liquidations hit Bitcoin and Ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. Bitcoin alone saw $341.7 million in liquidated positions, with the overwhelming majority — roughly 90% — coming from long trades. Ether was close behind with $285.6 million in liquidations.