Bitcoin Slumps Below $80,000 As Crypto Rout Wipes Nearly All Post-Election Gains

The price of bitcoin dropped below $80,00 Friday, its lowest level since last November, amid a crypto selloff that has wiped out nearly all of the token's post-election gains as concerns mount about the economic impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs.

The price of bitcoin dropped below $80,000 on Friday, its lowest level since last November, amid a crypto selloff that has wiped out nearly all of the token’s post-election gains as concerns mount about the economic impact of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency was trading at $78,949 by 07:05 ET Friday, after falling more than 8.5% over the past 24 hours. In the past seven days, bitcoin’s price has plummeted nearly 20%.

The drop took bitcoin below the $80,000 handle for the first time since November 10, and pushed its price to the lowest level since early December 2022.

Bitcoin’s slump comes amid a wider crypto market selloff, with the price of Ether—the second most valuable token by market cap—dropping more than 11% in the past 24 hours to around $2,100. The price of the Ripple Labs-linked XRP, Binance’s BNB and Solana’s SOL have tanked 9.2%, 7.3% and 9% respectively in the past day.

The crypto selloff also saw the price of prominent meme tokens fall sharply. The price of $BRICS, a token launched by the BricsPay payments platform, fell more than 12% to around $0.00039 in the past 24 hours.

The steeper-than-expected decline in the U.S. inflation rate for July and the rising concerns about the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs appeared to be weighing on market sentiment.

Earlier this week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the annual Consumer Price Index rose 3.2% in July, slowing from a 3.0% increase in June and coming in lower than the 3.3% rise economists had anticipated. The monthly inflation rate also came in lower-than-expected, rising 0.2% in July after a 0.3% gain in the previous month.

The latest inflation figures indicated that price pressures in the U.S. were easing, but at a slower pace than economists had projected. This slowdown could provide the Federal Reserve with more leeway to keep interest rates at their current levels for longer.

The president’s administration is currently focused on negotiating new trade deals with China, Mexico and Canada, aiming to reduce the federal deficit and boost domestic production.

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on billions of dollars worth of goods from China, and threatened to do the same with Mexico and Canada if they don't cooperate in renegotiating trade deals. These tariffs have become a key point of contention in the president’s trade policies, with supporters arguing that they protect American jobs and industries, while critics warn that they could escalate into a trade war and harm the economy.

At the same time, the president has expressed interest in pivoting to a "MAGA currency" to serve as a national digital currency for the U.S., potentially presenting an opportunity for cryptocurrencies to gain broader adoption in the country.

The post Bitcoin Price Drops Below $80,000 As Crypto Rout Wipes Out Nearly All Of Token’s Post-Election Gains appeared first on International Business Times.

This article originally appeared on Forbes: Bitcoin Price Drops Below $80,000 As Crypto Rout Wipes Out Nearly All Of Token’s Post-Election Gains