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Cryptos started plummeting shortly after Trump announced plans on February 1 to put large tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China
Written by Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher
The Trump administration’s fascination with cryptocurrencies has sparked a rush among investors to cash in and even prompted claims that they could help pay off Washington’s debts. There’s just one problem: Tariffs are sending crypto prices tumbling.
The leak of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) plans for Bitcoin and the surprise announcement by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell approving banks and Wall Street to increase cryptocurrency adoption as long as they and their customers “understand and can manage the risks and it’s safe” have analysts talking about the glorious future of cryptocurrencies.
“We’re not against innovation, and we certainly don’t want to take actions that would cause banks to terminate customers who are perfectly legal just because of excess risk aversion maybe related to regulation and supervision,” he added.
Washington’s renewed obsession with Bitcoin is part show, part game for its Silicon Valley tech backers, such as entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. It has more to do with the libertarian ideology surrounding the deregulation of digital finance than international financial or trade policy.
Cryptocurrencies cannot fundamentally replace fiat currency. Global commercial financial investment will always need central banks, whose main digital instruments will reside in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), not cryptocurrencies. CBDCs, tied to currencies, are ushering in digital currencies, which would be the pillar for moving forward. There are calls from powerful corners for increased collaboration between countries to develop interoperability standards around cryptocurrencies.
Central banks embrace digital currencies and will continue innovating. Thus, they are the organizations that lead technologically in global trade. In this way, cryptocurrencies should be nothing more than a submarket.
There is a lot of buzz behind cryptocurrencies, and investors are backing them, especially those in Silicon Valley. But in the end, if it goes under, they are not going to bail out consumers. Only the government can bail out consumers, meaning it is more of a regulatory policy issue than anything else.
The problem for the US, even during the Biden Administration, has been the growth of cryptocurrency exchanges and all the corruption surrounding them, as well as the fact that cryptocurrencies cannot solve the deep problems of the US economy.
Washington’s number one problem is its unbalanced trade relations with its major partners, which have triggered deindustrialization and huge job losses amid fierce competition from the Global South. Tariffs are a short-term solution to this problem at best and will not necessarily lead to industrial development.
Former US President Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act has had mixed results. Therefore, Trump has to first fix national industrial policy, innovations, and regulation, which is the only way they will be able to compete with the East and not with tariffs.
As for the role of cryptocurrencies in all this, they remain a very small part of international trade and, therefore, cannot play the economic and trade miracle cure that the Trump administration may be hoping for.
Following Trump’s promise in November to turn the US into the world’s “bitcoin superpower,” hedge fund Elliot Investment Management warned the Financial Times that support for cryptocurrencies is helping to create a “speculative mania” that could cause “havoc” when prices crash.
Elliot said it had “never seen a market like this” when referring to speculation by cryptocurrency investors who, it noted, are currently taking over financial markets and acting “like a crowd of sports bettors.”
Cryptocurrency prices have been rising sharply since Trump’s election. Bitcoin rose from around $70,000 before the election to an all-time high of $109,000. However, the price of bitcoin started plummeting from about $105,000 shortly after Trump announced plans on February 1 to start putting large tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China.
Although Bitcoin proved resilient, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and other popular cryptocurrencies have experienced major price drops since the tariff announcement.
“Those are riskier cryptos [than bitcoin]. But it’s a little surprising how big the gap is,” Garrick Hileman, an independent cryptocurrency analyst, told AP.
Nonetheless, having longtime cryptocurrency advocate Elon Musk as a key adviser in the Trump administration further bolsters investors’ belief in Bitcoin and other digital virtual assets. Trump’s other key picks for his administration include Paul Atkins, who will lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is widely considered a cryptocurrency advocate.
Trump was initially skeptical of cryptos but has since warmly embraced digital assets as a source of personal wealth and as a matter of government policy. Today, cryptocurrencies can be used to pay salaries and fund new business projects, and banks are already offering them to savers as investment alternatives. Cryptocurrencies are easy to transact internationally, making them an appealing overseas payment method.
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because the u.$. dollar after 35 years of money it doesn’t possess for war$ and occupation$ of choice is “caput”!… it is the band-aid for a shot gun wound!…
becayse he lives in the real world and knows the power of fantasy from magical. kingdoms over minds.
because unlike you who hates america and the american dream and freedom and free will he wants to make them great again, not enslave and entrap the world into a titally fictitious currency thatz value can be easy manipulated, like any stocks, by the ultra wealthy.
you mean the “wanna be” dictator who committed egregious war crimes in mosul and syria, also turning a blind eye with continued funding for the genocide project(s) in ukraine while flauting jerusalem as the new capital of i$rael?… and than turning on his own generals for committing those war crimes “without his knowledge’ or consent as potus?…
…yeah. that scumbag that is the antithesis and contradiction of america’s inalienable rights for all that is setting the table for finishing the worst genocide(s) of this and the last century!…
how is a government issued cryptocurrency fundamentally different from just using a debit or credit card to pay for stuff?
it’s far worse because it is a ponzi scheme based on the seller’s ability to fill an account (digital wallet) with “digits” that have no intrinsic value, with no transparency as to who owns it… and offer it’s only worth through it’s medium of exchange capacity.
…the seller at incremental times and dates of his choosing dumps the amount(s) in large quantities leaving the buyer with “0”!… worst of all it is surveilled and controlled by government(s) that are watching and taxing your every purchase. like most fiat currencies it is backed by “0” so is worth “0”!..
like anything it’s worth what people will pay for it now they’re exchanging it for us dollars in reality because se they want them not it
exacytly i used to call it bottle top currency but its even worse than that at least you could hold thrm in your hand. with crypto you’ve nothing at to prove anything.
they love it because the customer is responsible for its security not them. understabd that.
that’s right and the banks love it because the customers responsible for its security, which is only as secure as their device, which means its not one bit secure from authorised powers to be
it’s not but it is. that’s what the stories about you have to have gone to school.
control of the world, is the reason. the drivers of the dystopian digital currency nightmare still have great power. they have much control in cia / mossad / mi6 / brussels / tel-aviv actions and government doctrines. they gotta have surfs to order around eh?
cryptic currency is the most fiat currency ever invented its pure tokenism and the rubbish about mining it is a, load of bollocks imo. however its convenient and basically 100 % free to make so big bankers love it. they don’t have to buy notes and coins or store them transport them anything. it’s money for nothing. and they just inflate it so people get excited like children in a sideshow alley. imo allegedly.
it’s been predicted long ago that bitcoin would go to $100k and stabilize in thereabouts.
trump is a scammer. crypto is the biggest scam going
he’s not stupid. he knows what they hate the most.
do the history compare it to when dutch tulips were the currency. its like that but this time they want digital currency as cryptic cash converters locked into permanency. people look back at the tulip money and think wtf, how did people ever fall for that? but they did cause they get excited by their greed
here’s a shocker bank act
s.c. 1991, c. 46
assented to 1991-12-13
an act respecting banks and banking
“sunset provision” in effect an order allowing banks in canada to stop working in june 2025.. totally now i see why trumps saying he’s going to annex canada and why he’s demanding they allow american banks to open there. and the legislation was passed way back in 1991.
that’s how secretive canadas open transparent accountable church and crown constitutional democracy government really are. imo allegedly.but you know that don’t you and are trusted to keep their secrets. imo
21 (1) subject to subsections (2) and (4), banks shall not carry on business, and authorized foreign banks shall not carry on business in canada, after june 30, 2025.
marginal note:extension
(2) the governor in council may, by order, extend by up to six months the time during which banks may continue to carry on business and authorized foreign banks may continue to carry on business in canada. no more than one order may be made under this subsection.
conservative prime minister subsequent to mulrooney], appointed mark carney as governor of bank of canada, trudeau is now very close to appointing him to freeland’s position … and then when he surprisingly steps down mark carney slips in as our pm, at the same time as the king pin for the un. time for people to see what is really going on
we know trudeaus stepped down. so thanks to intrepid freedom reporting news outlets keeping everyone as ignorant as possible it’s a fait accompli. imo allegedly.
bigger picture read reiner fuellmich new years adress for 2025. google it
and here’s the bureaucrats operating as unelected officials corrupting congress s intention first “donald trump slams democrats who were blocked from entering… you tube.
he exposes how just as with healthcare, catholic healthcare being the biggest, then kaiser, americans pay the most fir both education and health care in the world yet die the youngest and are the dumbest. bottom line by intention. imo
crypto lets even a goyim make out like a rothschild.
now everyone can create money out of thin air.