Thursday, January 29, 2026, will go down in market history.
In less than 4 hours, nearly $5 trillion vanished more than France’s GDP.
Starting at 2:30 PM, a massive wave of selling hit risky assets: first Tesla and Nvidia, then indices (S&P 500, CAC 40).
By 4 PM, safe-havens fell too: silver, Bitcoin… everything. When everything drops together, it’s no longer a simple correction it’s a liquidity crunch.
The main issue? Synchronized selling.
When assets meant to protect portfolios fall with the rest, it signals one thing: investors aren’t selling what they want, they’re selling what they can.
Leverage is the trigger.
A -5% move on a highly leveraged asset sparks immediate margin calls, liquidating positions indiscriminately. Portfolios exposed to futures, cryptos, or derivatives take the hit. Algos then sell the most liquid assets silver, Bitcoin everything gets hit.
This is not a banking crisis. Only $6 million was drawn from the Fed’s Discount Window. The numbers are clear: the forced seller is a market participant, likely a hedge fund or over-leveraged family office. Names like Citadel and Millennium are already circulating.
A purge like this doesn’t stop at the first wave; imbalances from leverage can take 24–72 hours to fully unfold. Broker reports over the next 48 hours will be critical.
Reminder: liquidity can vanish instantly, leverage amplifies everything, and markets don’t forgive.
Once the purge ends and leverage is cleaned out, fundamentals always reassert themselves… but those who get wiped out never recover.
$PAXG
