bitcoin Traders are catching their breath after one of the wildest weekends in the asset’s history.
The flash crash that occurred Friday night following Trump’s announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports wiped out nearly $19 billion in crypto positions, the largest single-day liquidation on record.
But about 48 hours later, the market appears more stable, with a rebound taking shape as Washington and Beijing moved to calm tensions.
Alternative cryptocurrencies such as and They are leading the rebound. Both SDA and DOGE have gained almost 10% in 24 hours as discounted valuations attracted bargain hunters.
bitcoin rose 2.7% in the last 24 hours to approximately $114,665, while ether rose 8.3% to $4,135. BNB gained 13.9%, a reminder that liquidity is returning to ecosystem tokens. XRP up 7.4%, Solana added 7.2%.
The market message is clear: the broader uptrend has not been broken, but volatility has reset sentiment.
“What we just saw was a massive emotional reset,” said Justin d’Anethan, head of partnerships at Arctic Digital.
“Volatility cuts both ways: traders were punished in the decline and in the recovery. But the long-term structure is intact. ETF inflows remain strong, foreign exchange balances are near cycle lows and the broader narrative is arguably stronger after the failure,” he added.
That failure was no small feat. More than 6,300 wallets were liquidated on the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid alone, with some traders losing millions in a cascade triggered by Auto-Deleveraging, a circuit breaker that closes winning positions to cover systemic losses when insurance funds dry up.
It stopped defaults, but also magnified the decline, turning the correction into a structural event.
Tensions ease between the United States and China
The rally began over the weekend when China’s Ministry of Commerce clarified that rare earth export controls would not be a blanket ban, while Trump himself posted that “the United States wants to help China, not hurt it.”
Markets took this as a sign that the trade war rhetoric was cooling and risk assets rebounded accordingly.
At this stage, cryptocurrencies are once again advancing at the same pace as macro ones. “If the US-China dispute does not escalate into an all-out trade war, the market is likely to recover and pull back towards all-time highs,” said Jeff Mei, chief operating officer of BTSE, in a note to CoinDesk.
The path forward will depend on rates and risk appetite. If central banks lean toward easing, traders expect ETH and yield-generating tokens to fare better. Funding rates, options skew and whale flows will show where fresh capital will rotate next.
The outlook is volatile, but conviction persists. I would say the shakeout burned influence, not belief.
