Donald Trump’s tariffs have wiped £200bn from the crypto markets in just 24 hours.
As reported by the Crypto Today podcast, some coins have suffered their biggest single-day drop in years as investors race to pull their funds from riskier assets.
Bitcoin has recovered slightly after falling to lows of $93,000 in the early hours of Monday morning.
The downturn came days after the world’s biggest digital asset finished a month at a price above $100,000 for the first time in its history.
But the bigger story today is found among smaller cryptocurrencies – commonly referred to as “altcoins”.
Many have plunged by more than 20% over the past 24 hours alone. While these coins are famed for their volatility, declines of this scale are pretty unusual.
Ether – the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency – lost 26% of its value at one point, clocking up its worst performance in almost four years.
“Memecoins” including Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have also been hit hard, while Donald Trump’s official token has lost 75% of its value over the past two weeks.
And things may get worse before they get better.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is expected to open sharply lower this afternoon – potentially exacerbating selling pressure.
Nonetheless, some analysts believe that a sustained trade war between the US and other major economies could actually be beneficial for Bitcoin in the long run.
Bitwise analyst Jeff Parks thinks tariffs could ultimately dilute the value of major currencies like the dollar and pound, prompting consumers to seek this cryptocurrency as an alternative.
