Cryptocurrency prices extended their slide as escalating tariff war tensions and diminishing prospects of further Federal Reserve rate cuts offset a wave of pro-crypto announcements from President Donald Trump last week.
Risk assets like crypto are under pressure amid anxiety that Trump’s tariffs and government firings will torpedo growth in the world’s largest economy. US equities slumped and Treasuries rallied as investors sought a refuge.
“While Trump’s strategic crypto reserve announcement initially drove optimism, the rally quickly unravelled amid aggressive selling linked to worsening macro conditions,” wrote Nikolay Karpenko, director at B2C2.
Bitcoin fell as much as 4.5 per cent to $79,334 on Monday, the lowest level since February 28, before paring the loss. Solana, Cardano and XRP, all tokens that Trump had mentioned as possible candidates for a digital-asset stockpile but were not mentioned in Trump’s executive order, also slumped.
Trump’s crypto-friendly stance, including an order to create a US Bitcoin reserve and a separate stockpile of other tokens, along with a high-profile summit with industry executives in Washington, has done little to lift market sentiment. While the administration pledged to capitalise the reserve with crypto seized in legal proceedings, the absence of fresh capital commitments disappointed investors.
“The market perceived the summit as underwhelming and top cryptocurrencies dropped after it was revealed that the widely anticipated crypto reserve would only hold existing government holdings,” said Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at crypto exchange BTSE.
The US currently owns about $17 billion worth of Bitcoin and about $400 million worth of several other tokens, largely attributable to asset forfeitures related to civil and criminal cases.
Investors are rationally more bullish on crypto given recent developments like the reduced US Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement, but other factors are more nuanced or even negative, said Ari Paul, co-founder of BlockTower Capital.
“The apparent capricious favoritism in the administration’s selection of assets for the strategic reserve — especially after the launching of Trump and Melania coins — is a strong deterrent to investors,” Paul said in a message. “It’s created the impression that the Trump administration is engaged in lobbying based selection and promotion of ‘insider’ assets, and that the cryptocurrency market today is largely a short-term trading casino,” he added.
Since February investors have withdrawn a net $4.4 billion from the group of US Bitcoin ETFs, which played a key role in the token’s record run last year. The largest cryptoasset is currently down 25 per cent from its record high of $109,241 and the broader crypto market has lost over a trillion US dollar in market capitalisation from its peak, according to CoinGecko.
“Bitcoin could very well drop to the $70,000-$80,000 range in the coming weeks. Only when this tariff war ends and the Fed resumes cutting rates will top cryptocurrencies resume trending towards previous all-time highs,” Mei added.
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