Bitcoin Stalls as Trump Vents Trade Frustrations Before Fed Decision

The price of Bitcoin hovered around $95,000 on Tuesday as U.S. stocks fell on President Donald Trump’s apparent frustrations regarding the status of trade negotiations.

The leading cryptocurrency by market cap was roughly flat over the past 24 hours, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Most top altcoins showed mild losses, with Ethereum and Solana falling 2% to $1,780 and 1.5% to around $145, respectively.

Alongside Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s visit to the White House, Trump pushed back against investors’ growing sense of urgency for trade deals with nations caught up in his efforts to reshape global trade through “reciprocal” tariffs, per CNBC.

“Everyone says, ‘when, when, when are you going to sign deals?’” he reportedly grumbled. “We don’t have to sign deals, they have to sign deals with us.”

Seated next to Carney in the Oval Office, a reporter asked Trump if there was anything that the newly elected official could say to get the president to lift tariffs on Canadian goods.

“No,” Trump responded. “That’s just the way it is.”

Despite members of Trump’s cabinet teasing deals with nations like India and Japan for weeks, the administration has yet to unveil an agreement with a foreign trading partner.

During Congressional testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled that negotiations are still ongoing with nations affected by Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs. However, in an apparent departure from Trump’s previous comments regarding Chinese President Xi Jinping, Bessent said that China has yet to engage with the U.S. to negotiate 

“There are 18 very important trading relationships,” he said. “We are currently negotiating with 17 of those trading partners. China, we have not engaged in negotiations with, as of yet.”

After snapping a nine-day winning streak on Monday, stock indices fell further on Wall Street. The S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq each stumbled 0.4%, according to Yahoo Finance.

Investors’ retreat comes a day before the Federal Reserve is expected to hold its benchmark interest rate steady at the conclusion of its policy meeting. The central bank is also set to release quarterly projections of metrics like the unemployment rate and inflation.

In determining its policy stance, Fed officials are likely to look through data points that came before Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement involving sweeping tariffs, Katalin Tischhauser, head of research at digital asset banking group Sygnum, told Decrypt. That includes a Gross Domestic Product reading last week, which showed a contraction because imports are subtracted.

“Ahead of Liberation Day, imports have been fast-tracked and brought forward, skewing the GDP number,” she said. “The negative reading is therefore unlikely to spur the Fed into action.”

Traders currently foresee a 31% chance that the Fed will cut interest rates for the first time since December at the conclusion of its June meeting, per CME FedWatch. However, those odds could soon change when Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s remarks take center stage.

Edited by James Rubin