The crypto faithful did not see this coming. They thought their new commander-in-chief wouldn’t slap tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico.
Maybe it was just a negotiation tactic? Maybe America’s trade partners wouldn’t fight back? Maybe they forgot Trump is as volatile as crypto itself?
They priced in the usual — an underwhelming executive order on crypto, no Bitcoin national reserve, and regulatory shake-ups.
But not this. “The dumbest trade war in history.” And they paid for it. Dearly.
It’s all red
Bitcoin tanked 12% on Monday, dropping to $92K from last week’s $105K high. That’s actually not bad — Bitcoin’s mainstream momentum has made it the least volatile of the bunch.
But altcoins were another story. Ether, XRP, and ADA plunged over 20%, while retail traders’ favorite meme bet, Dogecoin, cratered 22%.
Read more: Trump’s crypto empire is growing. Is it pro-crypto or pro-Trump?
Trump may have faked them on Friday when he shilled his own $TRUMP coin (surprise, surprise, he “loves it”) only to slam the world’s economy with his tariff brakes on Saturday.
Is it gonna get worse?
Nic Puckrin, CEO of Coin Bureau, warns that BTC’s record-high correlation with equities means the next stock market crash could drag crypto down with it to the depths.
But Elliott Management, the activist investment firm, took their disdain for crypto to another level.
Standing at the other end of the spectrum, Elliott is calling the latest events proof that this “artificial mountain of value” is on the verge of crumbling on itself.
Read more: Trump’s crypto empire is growing. Is it pro-crypto or pro-Trump?
They warn that if governments finally crackdown, the resulting bans or seizures could be “the largest expropriation in history.” That’s a level of doom even crypto skeptics aren’t used to.
Escaping a crypto crash
Jeff Park, head of alpha strategies at Bitwise, is staying bullish. He argues that a sustained tariff war will ultimately drive Bitcoin higher as weaker global economies turn to alternative stores of value.
He reckons that trade partners will retaliate with looser monetary policies, their currencies will weaken, and outraged citizens will look for a hedge.
Read more: Crypto is (still) bleeding after DeepSeek’s disruption. Can it recover?
Enter Bitcoin. The end result for Bitcoin “is the same: higher, violently faster –– for we are at war,” he claims.
Crypto analyst Marty Bent sees the dip as just noise, arguing that BTC’s fundamentals as a “neutral reserve asset” are only getting stronger.
Roy Bhasin of Zen Academy suggests a simpler approach to these transformational events unfolding in real-time: take a step back, breathe, and evaluate.
Might be the best strategy of them all.
Edited by Ankush Chibber and Amitoj Singh. If you have any tips, ideas or feedback, please get in touch: talk-to-us@moniify.com
