Trump’s Tariffs and Binance: Why Crypto Was Knocked Down — and What’s Next

Trump is reviving U.S. import tariffs. Starting November 1, the president threatened to impose an additional 100% duty on all Chinese products. Considering that most of them are already taxed at 30%, the total rate becomes effectively prohibitive.

A New Round of the Trade War

Trump is reviving U.S. import tariffs. Starting November 1, the president threatened to impose an additional 100% duty on all Chinese products. Considering that most of them are already taxed at 30%, the total rate becomes effectively prohibitive.

Some goods may disappear from the U.S. market, others will become much more expensive — all of which will inevitably affect American consumers.
Trump claims the move is a response to China’s plan to tighten export controls on rare-earth metals, which are essential for electronics manufacturing.

China has already responded, calling such tariffs “unacceptable” and vowing to “take measures to protect its legitimate rights and interests.”

Given the tension, the crypto market’s reaction was predictable — panic that triggered an instant flash crash.

The Crypto Market Nosedive

Mutual economic threats between Washington and Beijing added more uncertainty to already fragile global sentiment.
The resulting psychological fear among crypto holders led to massive sell-offs.

On October 10, more than $16.7 billion in long leveraged positions were liquidated — eight times more than during the previous nine trading days combined.

This isn’t the first time. Back in April, during the first wave of Trump’s “tariff war,” crypto prices also plunged — only to rebound once Trump softened his rhetoric.
Will history repeat itself?

Market Outlook

Predicting Trump’s next steps is impossible given his unpredictable personality, but we can analyze what has already happened.

If investor panic is set aside, nothing extraordinary has occurred.
Prices for some tokens dropped sharply:

• Toncoin fell 80% in hours, then rebounded (net daily loss <20%);

• Bitcoin lost ~10.5%,

• Ethereum about 22%,

• Solana over 28%.

Prices merely returned to August lows, far from a full-blown collapse.

Experts at Bitwise, which manages spot ETFs for Bitcoin (BITB) and Ethereum (ETHW), share this view.
Senior strategist Juan Leon said:

“The best time to buy Bitcoin is when it’s falling in broad, sweeping moves.”

Chief investment officer Matt Hougan added:

“Buying the dip always feels wrong — but bottoms form when sentiment is at its worst.”

Binance Troubles

During the sell-off, some exchanges faced technical disruptions.
Users of Binance reported trading issues with USDe, BNSOL, and WBETH, as well as forced liquidations.

CEO Richard Teng acknowledged the issue:

“The past 24 hours have been turbulent. Volatility is part of the market.”

Co-founder Yi He later promised compensation for affected users.

The Binance issues sparked debate about whether they contributed to the crash. However, the primary catalyst remained Trump’s tariff announcement, which set off panic across global markets.

Despite technical hiccups, Binance wasn’t the biggest source of liquidations — Bybit’s $4.3 billion in long liquidations far exceeded Binance’s $1.4 billion.

Some, like Wu Blockchain, even speculated that Binance was targeted by a planned attack aimed at the BNSOL/WBETH oracle and high-leverage USDE positions.
But no solid evidence supports this theory so far.

Conclusion

There’s no reason to draw apocalyptic conclusions.
The crypto sell-off is a panic reaction to Trump’s tariff threats and China’s response.
Given the sharp but short-lived nature of the drop, it likely represents a temporary correction, not the start of a prolonged downturn.

Editor: Yulia Krasnaya

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