The price of Bitcoin slipped below $82,000 on Thursday as U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive new tariffs shook Wall Street and also sent altcoins diving.
The leading cryptocurrency dropped 5.8% to $81,732, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Solana, the sixth-largest digital asset by market value, fell 12% to a 13-month low under $113.
Dogecoin, the original and still most valuable meme coin by market cap, fell 10% to about $0.157. And the Ripple-linked XRP has fallen by 7.4% to $1.99.
Investors were reeling as Trump’s decision to impose sweeping tariffs on 185 countries prompted questions of retaliatory measures from America’s adversaries and allies, while also weighing on economic growth forecasts worldwide and bolstering inflation concerns.
The S&P 500 dropped 4%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq plummeted 5.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered close to correction territory—or 10% off its December high.
Trump unveiled a 10% baseline tariff on all goods imported to the U.S. on Wednesday, but countries including China and the European Union were hit with outsized levies, totaling 34% and 20%, respectively. Those hikes were added to tariffs that have already been imposed, yielding a combined total tariff rate of 54% on goods from China.
Beijing skewered Trump’s tariffs and promised to retaliate, while European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen said countermeasures are being prepared “to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail.”
Trump’s tariffs represent the largest import taxes since the 1930s, according to the crypto analytics firm Block Scholes. As a result, futures traders have sought “further protection against downward moves,” the firm said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
During Trump’s remarks from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, Bitcoin jumped as high as $87,000. In the run-up to his announcement, spot Bitcoin ETFs generated $218 million worth of daily net inflows, their highest since Feb. 2, according to crypto data provider CoinGlass.
Solana’s price peaked above $293 in January, the day before Trump’s inauguration, and it was recently changing hands around 61% down from its all-time high mark from less than three months ago.
Edited by James Rubin
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