One Hour, $6 Trillion Gone: Inside the Most Violent Market Open in Years

About $6 trillion vanished during the US market open as gold, stocks, and crypto fell sharply amid policy and leverage concerns.

Global markets faced sharp selling pressure during the US market open, where nearly $6 trillion vanished within one hour.

Heavy losses spread across equities, metals, and digital assets. The sell off followed rising uncertainty around US monetary policy, tariffs, and leverage across futures markets. .

Prices moved fast, while liquidity thinned across major exchanges.

Violent Sell Off Hits Multiple Asset Classes

According to Ash Crypto, gold prices dropped sharply during early US trading and erased close to $3 trillion in market value.

Prices fell between 7% and 8% within minutes, and then found support later in the session. Silver followed the same move and slid more than 12%, while losing about $750 billion in value.

Equity markets also opened lower. The Nasdaq and S&P 500 shed over $1 trillion intraday.

Technology stocks faced the strongest pressure, driven by earnings concerns and valuation risks. Market volatility rose fast, pushing the VIX above levels seen earlier in the year.

Cryptocurrencies moved lower alongside traditional assets. The global crypto market lost about $100 billion during the initial hour.

Bitcoin dropped to a two-month low near $81,100, while forced liquidations exceeded $1.7 billion.

Policy Uncertainty and Leverage Drive Market Stress

Investor focus shifted to reports about a possible change in Federal Reserve leadership.

President Donald Trump was linked to Kevin Warsh as a potential successor to Jerome Powell. Warsh is viewed as less supportive of aggressive rate cuts.

This uncertainty led to a risk-off move across markets. Traders reduced exposure to assets that benefited from earlier rallies.

Gold had gained over 60% in 2025, while equities reached record highs earlier in January.

High leverage worsened the move. Futures markets carried leverage between 50x and 100x in some contracts.

As prices fell, margin calls triggered forced selling, which pushed prices lower in a short period.

Big Tech Stocks Face Valuation Pressure

Technology stocks played a central role in the decline. Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, and Amazon all traded lower during the session. These companies hold large weights in major indexes, so declines spread quickly.

Nvidia faced pressure from export controls and concerns around chip demand. Tesla dropped due to its exposure to China, including production and sales.

Apple traded lower as tariffs raised concerns about manufacturing costs.

Even firms with lower tariff exposure were not spared. Microsoft shares fell after weaker cloud revenue guidance.

Alphabet and Meta faced pressure from slower advertising spending across global markets.

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Partial Recovery Follows Early Shock

Markets stabilized later in the session. Gold recovered a large portion of its losses by the close. US equities also reduced intraday declines, while volatility eased from peak levels.

Despite the rebound, trading volumes remained elevated. Investors stayed cautious as macro risks remained unresolved.

Tariff policy, interest rates, and earnings outlooks continued to guide price action.

The session ranked among the fastest large-scale market drawdowns in recent years. Price movements showed how quickly risk can spread across asset classes during periods of uncertainty.

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