Friday brought carnage onto crypto markets as U.S.-China trade tensions ratcheted up with Trump threatening a massive increase in tariffs against Chinese goods.

Worst-hit among the crypto benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index constituents was Ethereum's native token ether (ETH), nosediving 7% from Friday's session high and hitting its weakest price since late September below $4,100. Its decline far outpaced bitcoin's (BTC) 3.5% drop below $118,000 and the index's 5% plunge.

The broad-market downturn spurred a liquidation cascade across crypto derivatives markets, wiping out over $600 million of leveraged trading positions among all assets, CoinGlass data shows.

ETH also led in liquidations with over $235 million long positions wiped out through the session. Longs are leveraged bets seeking to profit from the asset's price rise.

Technical breakdown

• Selling pressure materialized at around 14:00 UTC with a volume of 372,211 units, almost double than the 24-hour average of 190,747 units.

• Volume-based resistance confirmed around $4,287.

• Primary resistance identified at $4,141 during failed recovery attempt.

• Potential support forming just below $4,100 where buyers emerged.