Trump drops bitcoin exchange rate below $83,000

The price of Bitcoin, like many other cryptocurrencies, collapsed on Wednesday after US President Donald Trump said during his first cabinet meeting that he planned to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from the European Union.

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Bitcoin fell to $82,335, continuing its long slide that began on Saturday. The top cryptocurrency has fallen 5% today, and in just the last four days, it has lost more than 13% of its value — its biggest drop since August last year. Other tokens, such as Ethereum and Solana, fell even more sharply: by 7% and 8%, respectively. Major stock indices also ended up in the red.

The sharp drop in markets was due to Trump’s latest outburst. The American leader announced upcoming 25 percent tariffs on imports from the EU, and lashed out at the EU, saying it was “created to screw the United States.” “We have made a decision and we will announce it very soon. It will be 25 percent,” the US president said at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Trump said the tariffs would apply “generally,” although he specifically noted that they would affect auto imports.

Against this backdrop, investors began to dump risky assets, with liquidation of both long and short positions intensifying. Also on Tuesday, investors pulled more than $1 billion out of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the largest one-day outflow since the ETFs debuted in January last year.

Ironically, Trump promised to actively support cryptocurrencies during the election campaign, and has actually taken steps in this direction since taking office. However, his foreign policy statements and actions clearly do not benefit cryptocurrency rates: Bitcoin has already lost 20% from its record level.

At the time of preparing this material, the decline had slightly recovered, to just above 84.8 thousand.