Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, more than $1 billion worth of derivatives were liquidated on March 4 due to fears of a trade war. Meanwhile, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has issued new requests to restrict El Salvador's Bitcoin purchases, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its investigation on Yuga Labs.Tariff turmoil sparks $1 billion in liquidations: CoinGlassCryptocurrency derivatives traders suffered more than $1 billion in liquidations in the past 24 hours as fears of a looming trade war sent markets tumbling, according to data from CoinGlass. More than 87% of liquidations came from long positions after a volatile start to March that saw double-digit losses on March 4 erase similarly large gains from only days earlier, the data showed. On March 4, US President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico, the United States’ largest trading partners, sending the S&P 500 stock index down nearly 2% in morning trading. Bitcoin (BTC) declined to around $82,000 after touching highs of around $93,000 on March 3, according to data from Google Finance. Cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) fell even further, dropping by around 12% and 20%, respectively. The drawdown was a bait-and-switch for traders who turned optimistic after Trump tipped plans on March 2 to create a US crypto reserve holding tokens ranging from BTC and ETH to XRP (XRP) and Cardano (ADA). Bitcoin longs comprised the largest portion of liquidated positions, at upward of $300 million in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Meanwhile, SOL, XRP and ADA positions collectively suffered more than $150 million in liquidations, the data showed.IMF deal to ban public sector “Bitcoin accumulation” in El SalvadorThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) is looking to restrict Bitcoin purchases by El Salvador as part of an extended $1.4 billion funding arrangement with the country.On March 3, the IMF issued a new request for an extended arrangement under its fund facility to El Salvador, filing several new documents, including a staff statement update and a statement by its executive director for El Salvador.The technical memorandum of understanding indicated a condition of “no voluntary accumulation of BTC by the public sector in El Salvador.”Additionally, the memorandum requested the restriction of public sector issuance of “any type of debt or tokenized instrument that is indexed to or denominated in Bitcoin and implies a liability to the public sector.”The IMF’s latest loan conditions reinforced prior commitments from the Salvadoran government to limit its engagement in Bitcoin-related economic activities.Yuga Labs says SEC stopped investigating the NFT firmYuga Labs, the company known for making once high-priced non-fungible tokens (NFTs), said on March 3 that the SEC closed its investigation into the company.“After 3+ years, the SEC has officially closed its investigation into Yuga Labs,” the company said in a March 3 X post. “This is a huge win for NFTs and all creators pushing our ecosystem forward. NFTs are not securities.”Bloomberg reported in October 2022 that the SEC, under former Chair Gary Gensler, opened a probe into Yuga Labs to determine if certain NFTs functioned more like stocks and could be considered securities. The probe was part of a wider investigation into determining the security status of NFTs that included probes into NFT creators and marketplaces.The SEC has been reeling back its actions in the crypto space under the Trump administration. Late last month, NFT marketplace OpenSea said the agency closed its investigation into the platform, which came just hours after the SEC dropped its lawsuit against crypto exchange Coinbase.