The price of Bitcoin fell to a two-week low on Monday before recovering some losses, as other major cryptocurrencies also seesawed two days ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s deadline to impose steep tariffs.
The leading digital asset edged up 1% to $83,465, according to crypto data provider CoinGecko. Ethereum, the second largest crypto by market capitalization, rose 1.1% to about $1,840, while Solana, the sixth largest, climbed 1.4% to over $125.
The upturn comes as investors look toward April 2, when Trump plans on announcing the tariffs in a ceremony scheduled for the White House Rose Garden. The crypto market has been teetering amid widespread market jitters as investors reel from Trump’s erratic trade policies.
Bitcoin’s price was recently down 23% from its record high of $108,800 set on Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration day. On Monday, the S&P 500 fell again into correction territory, sinking more than 10% below the market index’s peak in January, before regaining some ground.
Bitcoin price fell as low as $81,500 after The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump has recently pushed advisors to be more aggressive on tariffs on Sunday. A week ago, it changed hands around $88,500, as it appeared Trump might impose more limited measures.
After tilting toward “Extreme Fear,” or a value of 20 last month, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, a measure of investor sentiment, has since climbed to “Fear,” or a value of 34. Prediction market traders on MYRIAD foresee an 80% chance that the index will be at 30 or above on Tuesday. (Disclosure: MYRIAD is owned by Decrypt’s parent company, DASTAN.)
Ethereum and other altcoins have been hit much harder than Bitcoin since last January, with ETH’s price dropping to a 17-month low of $1,784 on Monday—a 16% fall over the past month.
The volatile start to the week followed some positive signs last week when investors allocated $195 million to Bitcoin investment products, per CoinShares. The crypto asset manager noted in a report on Monday that recent activity resembled “positive but cautious behavior.”
Some analysts believe that markets have digested the bulk of Trump’s tariff threats and that Bitcoin’s price has bottomed. Still, many have pointed to Trump’s “Liberation Day” on April 2 as a wild card, given that the White House’s stance on tariffs has shifted frequently.
Gold, the traditional safe-haven asset that has rallied alongside Trump’s trade utterances, set a new record on Monday. The precious metal was recently changing hands at around $3,153 per ounce, up more than 1%.
Bitcoin’s advocates often portray the cryptocurrency as a store of value, but it’s been tracking equities recently, especially the Nasdaq, according to researcher Noelle Acheson. The tech-heavy index and Bitcoin’s price have each fallen over 5% in the past week.
“BTC is reminding us that it is seen as a risk asset by many,” Acheson wrote in a Telegram message to Decrypt on Friday. “Risk sentiment is weak, largely due to uncertainty around the impact of tariffs and growing doubts, even among Fed officials, that rate cuts are coming any time soon.”
Monday marks the end to what has been a tumultuous quarter for the crypto market. Bitcoin is on track to finish down 11% from the beginning of January, while Ethereum is slated to record a 45% fall, according to the crypto data provider CoinGlass.
Edited by James Rubin
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