- XRP crashed 56% intraday, falling from $2.80 to $1.53 before rebounding.
- Over $19B in leveraged positions were liquidated market-wide.
- Analyst Chad Steingraber dubbed it an “XRP Black Swan”, the largest liquidation event in XRP’s history.
XRP has been stealing the spotlight this week, though not for reasons investors would hope. The token suffered one of its sharpest intraday crashes in recent memory, with market analyst Chad Steingraber calling it an “XRP Black Swan.”His words summed up the chaos that unfolded during the global sell-off on October 10, when markets across the board unraveled within hours.
The trigger? A bombshell announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump, who declared that his administration would slap a 100% tariff on Chinese imports. The statement set off immediate panic across global markets, rekindling fears of another trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
The fallout was instant and brutal. Stocks tanked, commodities bled, and crypto — as usual — took a beating of its own. The entire cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped below $4 trillion, settling around $3.7 trillion. Within just a few hours, billions in leveraged trades were liquidated, marking one of the most volatile sessions in digital asset history.
XRP Plummets $1.27 in a Single Day
Before the chaos hit, XRP had been holding steady near $2.80, showing surprising resilience while other altcoins wobbled. But when panic took over, that stability vanished. In just a matter of hours, XRP plunged to $1.53, shedding roughly $1.27 from its daily high — one of the steepest single-day declines since the 2021 cycle.
Buyers eventually stepped in to catch the falling knife. By the end of the day, the token clawed its way back to $2.35, trimming a portion of the losses but still closing deep in the red. The wild intraday swings left traders reeling and exchanges struggling to keep up with the sheer volume of liquidations.
Data from CoinGlass confirmed the magnitude of the event — over $19 billion in leveraged positions were wiped out across the crypto market in just 12 hours. Long traders bore the brunt of it, losing around $16.7 billion, while short traders faced roughly $2.4 billion in losses. Updated figures later showed that the liquidation total ticked up slightly to $19.31 billion, as margin calls continued to cascade.
The “XRP Black Swan” Shocks the Market
Chad Steingraber described the event as nothing short of historic. “This was the largest single-session liquidation in XRP’s history,” he said, calling it an “XRP Black Swan” due to the sheer speed and scale of the wipeout.
CoinGlass data backed that up — XRP traders collectively lost about $707 million in just 24 hours. The majority of that came from long positions, which accounted for roughly $615 million, while short traders lost around $92 million.
For comparison, even during previous bear market crashes, XRP hadn’t seen liquidation levels this extreme. This latest drop now stands as the most severe in the asset’s history — a grim milestone that reinforces how fragile high-leverage trading remains in crypto.
Ripple Effect Across the Market
As of writing, XRP trades around $2.47, down 12.1% on the day and over 17% for the week. While the coin has shown signs of recovery, traders remain cautious.
The broader lesson from this “Black Swan” moment isn’t just about XRP. It’s about how quickly sentiment can shift when geopolitics and leverage collide. The crypto market, once again, reminded everyone that it moves fast — sometimes too fast for even the smartest money to react.
