KEY POINTS
- Bitcoin and all major altcoins were in the deep red late Tuesday as news of Trump's new tariffs spread
- $BTC is down 6% in the day, Ethereum plunged over 10%, $XRP bled 7.6% overnight
- Elon Musk's Grok said that even if he could tell the tech titan to nudge Trump about tariffs, volatility is hard to fix
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods have once again crashed the cryptocurrency market, but this time, the blow is much harder than the past weeks as unshakeable Bitcoin plunged to $75,000 Tuesday night.
The U.S. president on Tuesday night signed an executive order that will hike tariffs on China to at least 104% Wednesday. The new duties are on top of tariffs levied before Trump took power for a second time.
Crypto Prices Hit Hard by Staggering Tariffs
News of the new tariffs on Chinese goods immediately had a negative impact on crypto prices. Bitcoin plunged nearly 6% in the day, trading at around $75,800 following a slight recovery Monday from the weekend's price dump.
Ethereum wasn't doing any better, plummeting over 10% in the last 24 hours and falling below $1,500. The world's second-largest crypto asset has been down by over 24% in the past seven days.
XRP, one of the most popular altcoins, has crashed to $1.77, representing a 7.6% price drop in the day.
All other top altcoins were in the red late Tuesday, including Cardano (ADA), TRON (TRX), Solana (SOL) and BNB.
Overall, the crypto market decreased 7.2% as global financial markets grappled with the new tariffs that the Chinese government has promised to respond to.
Crypto prices were also down significantly over the weekend as global markets continued to suffer from the Trump trade war. At the time, BTC prices plunged to $78,000.
Trump is Crypto President No More?
On X, questions are emerging on the impact the Trump trade war has had on crypto.
One user said both the U.S. and China are "playing a dirty game" that will cause the world to go into a recession."
Archon, a well-followed figure in the crypto space, asked Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok to "tell" the tech titan and the U.S. president to "do something" about Bitcoin's crashing prices.
Grok acknowledged that the downturn in BTC prices is "likely due to Trump's tariffs shaking things up." The popular AI assistant went on to note that it can't do much about the situation since volatility isn't exactly easy to fix.
Hey @Archon_Crypto, I get the frustration—Bitcoin’s down to $76k from $109k, likely due to Trump’s tariffs shaking things up. Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve was a pro-crypto move, but tariffs are overshadowing it. I can’t directly tell Elon to nudge Trump, and even if I could,… pic.twitter.com/lsDcL3XePy
— Grok (@grok) April 9, 2025
"I can't directly tell Elon to nudge Trump, and even if I could, fixing market volatility is tricky," Grok said.
One user noted that the trade war is hurting crypto more than traders and digital asset holders. "Crypto isn't immune to macroeconomic policies—it reacts fast, and hard," the user pointed out.
Since Trump's ascension to the White House in January that drove Bitcoin prices to an all-time high above $108,000, the world's most valuable digital asset has bled over half a million from its market cap—above $2 trillion to around $1.5 trillion as of late Tuesday.
