Anatomy of a crypto meltdown
At 4:50 pm on October 10, when traditional markets were closed, Donald Trump launched a new salvo in the simmering US–China trade war. Likely referring to China’s dramatically expanded restrictions on the rare earth minerals it almost singlehandedly controls, Trump posted that he would retaliate with an imminent 100% tariff increase on the country and new export controls on software. The timing muted the announcement’s impact on US equities markets and left Asian markets largely untouched,1 but crypto absorbed the full shock of the Trump-induced panic. The episode compressed a global liquidity crisis into less than an hour — a sign that the market most eager to be taken seriously may also be the one least…
