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Crypto traders are accusing institutional players and insiders of orchestrating the October 10 market crash that liquidated $19 billion in leveraged positions and wiped out over $500 billion in market value. Suspicious whale movements, perfectly timed short positions, and exchange outages have fueled claims of coordination. But do the allegations hold up under scrutiny?
On October 10, 2025, crypto markets experienced one of the sharpest single-day selloffs in history. Bitcoin plunged 10% to $107,000, Ethereum fell below $3,800, and altcoins like Solana and XRP dropped as much as 40% within hours.
The catalyst was geopolitical: President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on Chinese imports, effective November 1, coupled with new export controls on critical software. The move, framed as retaliation for China’s restrictions on rare earth exports essential for semiconductor and blockchain hardware production, sent shockwaves through global markets.
Within the first hour, data from Coinglass showed $7.5 billion in liquidations. By day’s end, that figure had climbed to $19 billion across 1.6 million traders, according to Bloomberg. Stablecoin Ethena’s USDe briefly depegged to $0.92 as liquidity evaporated and exchanges struggled under the load.
Exchanges struggled under pressure, liquidity vanished, and stablecoins like Ethena’s USDe depegged to $0.92. The event, dubbed the Trump Tariff Meltdown, left the digital economy reeling, and social media ablaze.
As markets tumbled, X (formerly Twitter) became the epicenter of speculation. Hashtags like #CryptoCrash, #BitcoinDump, and #ManipulatedMarket racked up more than three million impressions within 24 hours. Threads mixed humor, despair, and forensic sleuthing, blending meme culture with financial autopsy.
A viral post by @fnotrader_com described the event as a “system-wide margin call,” arguing that Trump’s announcement triggered cascading auto-liquidations that even caught shorts in the crossfire. @cryptocruizeHQ’s thread detailing the record $19 billion liquidation drew thousands of views, amplifying calls for regulatory scrutiny.
Darker stories began to spread too. The Bit Gazette even wrote about claims that a trader had taken his own life after the crash, while others insisted the chaos was “a setup by the whales.” Social media was soon filled with screenshots of exchange glitches, on-chain heatmaps, and supposed whale movements. In no time, fear and anger fed off each other, and scattered rumors started to sound like facts.
One of the first big posts after the crash came from @BullTheoryio. Within minutes of the dump, X (Twitter) lit up like liquidation bots firing all at once. His thread went viral — more than 646,000 views — with a headline that grabbed everyone: “TRUMP JUST TRIGGERED THE BIGGEST CRYPTO CRASH. And it was all pre-planned.”
He laid out a chilling timeline: two days before the announcement, a 2011-era Bitcoin whale quietly opened billion-dollar short positions on BTC and ETH, no media buzz, just silent on-chain moves. Then came Trump’s tease of “massive new tariffs,” followed by the official podium moment. What followed was chaos, the S&P 500 fell 2%, Bitcoin plunged to $102K, altcoins cratered up to 90%, and nearly $1 trillion vanished in three hours.
Speculation on X quickly solidified around three dominant theories—each rooted in real data yet vulnerable to post-crash bias.
Users cited a Hyperliquid address that opened $1 billion in BTC and ETH shorts just 30 minutes before Trump’s announcement, reportedly netting $193 million in profit. 
Threads accused large institutional traders of orchestrating a “coordinated reset” to buy crypto cheaply after forcing retail liquidation.
Others alleged government-level manipulation. 
One widely shared post claimed exchanges were hit with timed DDoS attacks to trap traders in losing positions. Another accused market makers of “planned downtime” to scoop up assets during volatility.
A third camp believed exchanges primed the crash via automated bot trading to trigger stop losses and harvest fees. Some traders threatened legal action, labeling the event a “money grab” after witnessing 70% flash drops followed by instant recoveries.
Each theory found fuel in blockchain analytics platforms like Arkham Intelligence, which showed whale wallet movements preceding the crash. Still, the data left room for interpretation—proof for some, coincidence for others.
While X fumed with speculation, analysts urged calm. Markus Thielen of 10x Research called the event a “Trump Surprise”, a textbook macro shock that triggered a natural deleveraging cycle in an overheated market.
Edul Patel, CEO of Mudrex, noted that October has historically hosted corrections followed by rebounds, referencing similar selloffs between 2017 and 2020. “This is a shakeout, not sabotage,” he told Business Today, predicting a relief rally once panic subsides.
Zaheer Ebtikar of Split Capital described the selloff as “a full leverage reset,” clearing excess risk and setting the stage for recovery. Chainalysis data backed this up, attributing the cascade to “panic amplified by thin liquidity,” not an orchestrated scheme.
Even on X, some traders echoed this logic. “Chaos, not cabal,” wrote @fnotrader_com, arguing that algorithmic liquidations, not coordinated sabotage, caused the domino effect. Bitcoin’s rebound to $113,000 by October 11 and ETF inflows lend weight to this interpretation.
Beyond price charts, the crash exposed deeper tensions within crypto culture. Trust—supposedly guaranteed by decentralization—fractured under pressure from centralized exchanges, opaque algorithms, and geopolitical forces far beyond blockchain’s reach.
On-chain transparency offered partial answers. Data revealed predictive whale activity, but off-chain dynamics—exchange outages, policy shocks, and emotional contagion—remained murky. One viral post by @Goldencrypt0x framed it bluntly:
“The system isn’t broken it’s just working exactly as intended.”
Emotionally, the crash became a collective reckoning. Traders who once flaunted gains turned to digital lamentations and memes. “A trillion dollars gone in 24 hours,” wrote @annayaksheva, echoing the despair of countless others. Yet, amid the wreckage, hope flickered. “Crashes cleanse markets,” posted @VikCryptoX, calling it “a forced evolution toward DeFi sanctuaries.”
In crypto’s vast and volatile ledger, such collapses rarely mark endings. They serve as inflection points—moments that test conviction, challenge trust, and remind believers that the true volatility lies not in code, but in human emotion.
