The crypto market has seen liquidations top $980 million, driven by a sharp shift to risk-off sentiment amid a public falling-out between U.S. President Donald Trump and his former right-hand man, Elon Musk.

At least $892 million of long positions was liquidated among 227,825 traders as bitcoin declined 3% and ether fell as much as 7% in a 24-hour period, according to data from Coinglass.

The fallout began over Trump’s signature spending bill, known as the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which advances many of his major domestic policy priorities, including tax cuts and reductions in government spending, including Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts that will leave around 11 million Americans without any form of health insurance.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

By late Thursday evening, the fallout had escalated, with both men attacking each other on their respective social media platforms.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump accused Musk of going “crazy” after losing the electric vehicle mandate and suggested that he had been generous to the billionaire entrepreneur in the past. 

Musk escalated the feud by writing on X that Trump’s name appeared in government documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.