Bitcoin drops to $109,444, its lowest level since February, after Trump’s new China tariff threat

Bitcoin continues falling off a cliff on Friday, collapsing to $109,444, its lowest level since February, after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. will hit China with 100% tariffs starting November 1.

Nearly $1 billion in liquidations slammed the Bitcoin market within 24 hours, based on CoinGlass data, while Ethereum remains under $4,000 at press time, after following Bitcoin’s crash the first time.

This meltdown follows Trump’s latest rant on Truth Social, where he said China sent “an extremely hostile letter to the World,” revealing plans to launch massive export controls on nearly everything they produce.

Trump called the decision “unheard of,” “a moral disgrace,” and claimed it would impact all countries without exception. He vowed that the U.S. would answer with a 100% tariff, plus software export bans aimed squarely at Beijing.

Trump cancels Xi meeting, reignites crypto panic

This wasn’t Trump’s first warning shot today. Just three hours before, Cryptopolitan reported that the US president had said: “I was to meet President Xi in two weeks, at APEC in South Korea, but now there seems to be no reason to do so.”

He went on to accuse China of lying, saying they’re “becoming very hostile” with restrictions on rare earth metals, a critical ingredient in everything from smartphones to missiles. That post kicked off the initial selloff, but Friday’s update blew the doors off.

The fallout spread to stocks quite fast. The SPY ETF dropped 2.7%, the QQQ sank 3.5%, and BlackRock’s IBIT Bitcoin ETF fell 3.7%. The CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF also dropped 3.9%, showing there was nowhere to hide—not even in mining stocks, which had looked strong just days earlier.

Despite the crash, some miners still walked away with gains over the week.

HIVE ended the week up 40%, even with the sharp downturn in Friday’s session. Right behind it, BitFarms closed the week with a 31% gain.

Over the last month, mining stocks have been some of the wildest movers in the market. Between September 10 and October 10, both HIVE and BitFarms doubled their value. Another name, IREN, nearly did the same, starting at $30.68, closing just under $60. The average one-month return for top miners came in at 73.26%. But that trend may be breaking now.

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