Bitcoin falls along with the rest of the market due to the US-China trade conflict.

The trade war between the United States and China has plunged the price of Bitcoin. The tension between the two countries has sparked panic and massive liquidations in the market. 

The pulse of the crypto market is once again marked by geopolitical noise. In a month that promised growth and stability, the escalating trade tensions between the United States and China have unleashed a wave of selling, dragging the price of Bitcoin (BTC) from its heights above $122.000. 

The threat of additional tariffs from Washington on Beijing acted as a trigger, causing a sharp drop that, according to data from the tracking platform CoinGecko, led the price of the leading cryptocurrency to hit a local low of $107.000. Although a slight recovery is observed at the time of writing, with the BTC price stabilizing around $112.000, uncertainty has taken hold of investor sentiment. 

This sudden geopolitical "black swan" has not only wiped out billions in market capitalization, but has also reopened the debate about Bitcoin's true role in times of crisis as a digital safe haven. 

The economic storm hits Bitcoin

October had started optimistically for the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin was trading strongly, surpassing the psychological barrier of $120.000 and aiming for new local highs. However, traditional markets began to send warning signals. 

Donald Trump's warnings about a possible escalation in the trade dispute with China, combined with news of a partial government shutdown in the United States due to budget disputes, created a toxic cocktail for risk appetite. 

The cryptocurrency market, which often moves in correlation with high-growth tech assets like the Nasdaq, wasn't immune. The news of the tariffs was the final straw. Charts that until recently painted a bullish picture turned deep red, reflecting a swift and painful capitulation that took the price from $122.000 to nearly $107.000 at its lowest point, before finding temporary support at the aforementioned $112.000.

Tariffs, panic, and the domino effect of liquidations

The root of this storm lies not in a failure of blockchain technology or an inherent problem with Bitcoin, but in the halls of power in Washington and Beijing. The threat of new tariffs on Chinese products introduced significant friction into the global economy, threatening to slow trade, increase inflation, and reduce corporate profit margins. 

In such a fragile macroeconomic environment, institutional and retail investors tend to adopt a stance of «risk-off», that is, they flee assets they perceive as volatile or speculative to protect their capital. In the short term, Bitcoin continues to be treated by a large portion of the market as one of these risky assets. The speed of the decline suggests it was not a strategic sell-off, but rather a panic reaction.

This initial panic was exponentially magnified by an internal technical factor of the crypto market: the massive liquidations of leveraged positions. 

In simple terms, thousands of investors had bet using borrowed money, which is known as leverage, that the price of Bitcoin would continue to rise. However, when the price plummeted sharply due to geopolitical news, these positions became unsustainable. The platforms forced the automatic sale of these assets to cover debts, a process known as margin call or liquidation. This created a vicious cycle: forced selling pushed the price even lower, which in turn triggered further liquidations, triggering a cascade of selling that accelerated the decline to the low of $107.000. 

Several experts have called this event a painful purge for bullish speculators, as billions of dollars in open positions were wiped out in a matter of hours, demonstrating how geopolitical volatility can be amplified by the very structure of the crypto market. As reported According to this report, liquidations on October 10 totaled more than $19.000 billion, marking this day as the largest liquidation event in the crypto market to date. 

Gold vs. Bitcoin: The Safe Haven in Times of Global Uncertainty

As the cryptocurrency market bled dry, an old favorite shone brightly. Gold, the safe-haven asset for millennia, experienced renewed bullish momentum. 

Amid economic uncertainty and tensions between the world's two largest powers, investors sought the tangible and proven security of the precious metal. This movement clearly diverged from that of Bitcoin, which was falling sharply. However, while Bitcoin's narrative as "digital gold," a safe haven against fiat instability and inflation, suffered a severe blow in the short term, the cryptocurrency is once again consolidating its status amid the storm.

Beneath the surface of retail panic and trader liquidations, a silent, opposing force continues to operate. institutional demand, the pillar that has sustained the growth of the crypto market in recent years, appears to remain firm. 

Despite the drastic price drop in BTC and other crypto assets, reports indicate that large corporations have not stopped their Bitcoin and Ether (ETH) accumulation programs, viewing them as long-term strategic assets for their treasuries. More importantly, Bitcoin spot Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) continue to see net inflows. For experts and analysts, this is crucial, as it means that while short-term traders are panic-selling, large investment funds and their clients are taking advantage of the lower prices to "buy the dip", applying the strategy known as buy the dip.

According to data from the Soso Value platform, Bitcoin ETFs have accumulated inflows of more than $3.700 billion so far in October.  

Bitcoin resists thanks to institutional strength

Institutional demand remains a central component of market dynamics and acts as a kind of buffer, providing a liquidity floor that, according to many analysts, prevented the BTC price from collapsing below the psychological barrier of $100.000.

The current episode, with market data illustrating the dramatic decline, is a perfect microcosm of Bitcoin's dual reality. On the one hand, it remains a panic-sensitive asset, vulnerable to geopolitical shocks, and correlated with risk. On the other hand, the thesis of long-term adoption by large capital remains intact, providing structural support that didn't exist in previous cycles. 

Tensions between the United States and China will undoubtedly continue to shape the markets, but the key question for Bitcoin is no longer whether it will survive these storms, but how it will mature through them. Meanwhile, the market is regaining ground, with the BTC price stabilizing around $112.000, maintaining a very active focus on both political news and the movements of institutional investors and exchange-traded funds.