Quick overview

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Zcash (ZEC) fully recovered and reached a new high of approximately $291 before retracing to $272 at the time of writing.

The cryptocurrency markets experienced a downturn following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 100 percent tariffs on China via social media, causing Zcash to plummet by 45 percent on Friday, dropping from a high of about $273 to a low of $150.

 

ZEC had only declined roughly 5 percent from its recent peak, distinguishing it from other cryptocurrencies amid this market turmoil.

The tariffs introduced by President Trump significantly contributed to the drop in cryptocurrency prices, resulting in a staggering loss of $19 billion in positions. Several factors contributed to this severe liquidation, including increased leverage, automatically triggered sales, and a lack of liquidity during off-peak trading hours.

From Saturday morning in Asia to Saturday afternoon in the US, traders, executives, and market data analysts rushed to assess the extent of the losses incurred. According to CoinGlass, over 1.6 million traders were liquidated during this chaos.

Trump signaled the return of the global trade war on Friday by crashing markets with just two social media posts. He claimed in his first post that the Chinese government’s increased export restrictions on rare earth minerals, which are essential for industrial machinery used in the mineral refining process and for tech manufacturing, are “very hostile” and will “clog” international trade. According to Reuters, China supplies more than 90% of the rare earth minerals and rare earth magnets used in consumer electronics, computer chips, electric batteries, and military defense systems worldwide.

Trump wrote, “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,” raising concerns that a protracted trade war might break out again. In April, the same anxieties caused the capital markets to lose trillions of dollars. Hours later, Trump announced that all Chinese goods would be subject to an additional 100 percent tariff, which would go into effect on November 1, 2025, or earlier.