Bitcoin is down 10%+ to ~$76K after President Trump's global tariffs, far below its record price of nearly $110K on Trump's inauguration on January 20, 2025
The rapid drop shows that cryptocurrencies, which the president has promoted, are subject to the same market gyrations as any other risky asset.
Context & Ripple Effects
Bitcoin’s post-election rally had already shown signs of fading: it slipped below $90,000 in February after reaching more than $108,000 around the inauguration. The latest move extends the unwinding of that rally and puts the contrast with its inauguration-period high into sharper relief.
This was not an isolated crypto move. Days earlier, tariffs coincided with declines in bitcoin, ether and Solana, as well as weaker Coinbase and MicroStrategy shares, tying crypto-market risk more closely to the broader reaction to trade policy.
First-order effects
- Bitcoin holders face a rapid repricing to roughly $76,000, more than 10% below the prior level and far beneath the inauguration-period record.
- The selloff directly reinforces the article’s central market signal: bitcoin is trading like a risk-sensitive asset during a tariff-driven shock, despite the president’s promotion of cryptocurrencies.
Second-order effects
- Crypto-linked public companies and other major tokens may remain exposed when macro risk sentiment weakens; the earlier tariff reaction had already hit Coinbase, MicroStrategy, ether and Solana alongside bitcoin.
- The decline complicates the case that political support alone can sustain crypto valuations, shifting attention back to broader market conditions rather than policy-friendly rhetoric.
Third-order effects
- If tariff-related market shocks repeatedly move bitcoin with other risk assets, the asset’s inauguration-era surge may be viewed less as a separate crypto cycle and more as part of a wider risk-on/risk-off trade.
- That pattern would deepen the crypto legitimacy gap: adoption narratives can coexist with continued dependence on the same macro forces that drive conventional speculative assets.
The trend: Crypto is increasingly being tested as a macro-sensitive risk asset rather than a market insulated by political support or its own adoption narrative.