Bitcoin and Ethereum Slump as Trump's Tariff War Spooks Crypto Markets

Bitcoin price fell as much as 6 percent to near $93,000, while Ethereum tumbled 27 percent at one point, its biggest intraday drop since 2021.

Cryptocurrency prices crashed on Monday, with Bitcoin and Ethereum leading the losses, after US President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China.

Bitcoin price fell as much as 6 percent to near $93,000, while Ethereum tumbled 27 percent at one point, its biggest intraday drop since 2021.

However, both coins recovered some ground later in the day, with Bitcoin last down about 2 percent and Ethereum trading around $2,500, down 17 percent.

As of early afternoon in Singapore, Ethereum hovered around $2,500, and Ripple-linked XRP was down 17 percent at $2.20.

Traders reacted sharply to Trump’s tariff announcements over the weekend, which introduced a 25 percent levy on Canadian and Mexican imports and a 10 percent duty on Chinese goods. The move, which sparked immediate retaliatory threats from US trading partners, rattled global markets and contributed to risk-off sentiment in the cryptocurrency space.

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“Trump’s tariff war is impacting the whole market,” said Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets, to Bloomberg. “Concerns about trade wars and stagflation, triggering recessions, are cascading across altcoins and Bitcoin.”

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The sharp decline in crypto prices marks a reversal from recent optimism tied to Trump’s pro-crypto rhetoric. Donald Trump, who once dismissed digital assets as a scam, has embraced crypto during his campaign, vowing to make the US the "crypto capital of the planet." After retaking office as the US President last month, he signed an executive order creating a working group to establish clearer regulatory guidelines and explore a national crypto stockpile.

Ethereum saw particularly steep losses amid concerns that its liquidity is less resilient than other digital assets. “Ether is being battered more than Bitcoin, Solana, and Ripple mainly because there is an expectation that the latter are more likely to be included in a US digital asset stockpile,” said Jonathan Yark, senior quant trader at Acheron Trading, as reported by Bloomberg.

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More than $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated in early Asian trading hours on Monday with Ethereum trades accounting for the bulk of the unwinding. Sean Dawson, head of research at Derive.xyz, said that Ether may find support around the $1,900-$2,000 range, with options markets pricing in a 25 percent chance of hitting $2,000 before the end of the month.

Beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, the broader crypto market faced heavy selling pressure. CoinGecko data showed that total market capitalisation fell by approximately $360 billion. Meanwhile, Trump-linked memecoins launched in recent weeks by the President’s wife Melania Trump were also hit hard, trading about 75-90 percent below their peaks.