Donald Trump is Losing the Crypto Bros Over Tariff Turmoil

The crypto community has not been spared the tariff-induced panic that swept American and global markets last week, with many of its key voices now lashing out at the man once thought to be heralding a new age for digital assets.

While losses on Wall Street tempered on Monday, the stock market has undergone a bear run since President Trump announced his flat 10 percent tariff on all global imports, alongside country-specific reciprocal duties on dozens of trading partners.

Ahead of markets opening on Tuesday, the S&P 500 was down 10.7 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 10.2 percent, and the Nasdaq composite by 11.4 percent following Trump’s Rose Garden Speech.

Bitcoin saw a similar slide immediately following the announcements—shedding over $4,000 between Wednesday evening and Thursday morning—but remained relatively stable at around $83,000 while global financial markets entered freefall.

Many prominent voices in the crypto space were adamant that this particular asset class would be spared the effects of the new import taxes, given that blockchain-based transactions involve no borders or customs authorities, and argued that the case for crypto had been strengthened, not weakened, by the global economy entering a new era of mercantilism and trade barriers.

“There are no tariffs on Bitcoin,” Michael Saylor, whose company MicroStrategy owns an estimated $33 billion worth of the cryptocurrency, posted on April 3.

However, just a day later Bitcoin joined the global market rout, dropping to $74,500 on Friday morning, its lowest level since November and well below the all-time high of $109,114.88 achieved on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

“Recently, Bitcoin has shown a strong correlation with the broader financial markets,” Danny Scott, CEO of UK-based bitcoin exchange CoinCorner, told Newsweek. “As the market declines, Bitcoin has followed, irrespective of its own fundamentals.”

“There are so many moving parts that it’s hard to tell what was the purpose and what’s purely happening as a byproduct,” he added. “However, one thing is clear: this has definitely caused Bitcoin to dip down to the $80k region recently.”

Other cryptocurrencies have fared even worse, with ethereum sinking over 20 percent between Friday and Monday to reach its lowest price in over two years.

Ethereum has climbed about eight percent since its Monday trough, and Bitcoin has recovered to approximately $79,000 at the time of writing. However, the fear within the crypto community that the tariffs are here to stay has come close to matching the panic seen on Wall Street.

Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy claimed to have lost $7 million in stocks and cryptocurrency following Trump’s announcement of the new tariffs, but added that he still had faith in the president and would wait to see “how this pans out.”

“What the f— is going on with our country?” said streamer Adin Ross, whose support for Trump was cited as contributing to his success among young voters during the 2024 presidential election. Ross claimed to have lost over $10 million in stocks and crypto as a result of last week’s crashes, adding: “Guys, why am I poor?”

Palestinian-Jordanian economist Saifedean Ammous, a prominent advocate for Bitcoin, has been especially critical of the rationale behind the new trade policies.

“Wanting all countries to have perfectly-balanced trade with the US is precisely as stupid, impractical, and pointless as you wanting to have zero trade balance with everyone you know,” Ammous posted to X.

In a separate post, he wrote: “You buy most of your things from a few places, and you sell most your services to a few places. You run deficits or surpluses with them all, and you would have to be a real moron to seek to have balanced trade with them all.”

Balaji Srinivasan, known for betting on Bitcoin to reach $1 million, said that the tariffs were “nuking every single supply chain that passes through the U.S. in any way, under the illusion that 45 years of deindustrialization can be fixed in one day of 45 percent tariffs.”

However, others have tried to justify the sell-off as a product of the market crash, one Redditor on r/Bitcoin speculating that investors were cashing in on crypto holdings to “to take advantage of the blood on Wall Street.”

Danny Scott of CoinCorner, similarly, suggested that the drop could be due to investors “derisking” their portfolios amid the tariff uncertainty.

“Today’s market reaction to tariffs is a reminder: inflation is just the tip of the iceberg. Capital faces dilution from taxes, regulation, competition, obsolescence, and unforeseen events,” Michael Saylor posted on Friday “Bitcoin offers resilience in a world full of hidden risks.”

Some have even welcomed Trump’s tariffs, arguing they could serve as a catalyst for cryptocurrency—fueling bets that Bitcoin could reach new all-time highs once the stock market rebounds.

“Stocks and Bitcoin will likely be at all-time highs again before the end of the year,” wrote investor and entrepreneur Anthony Pompliano. “All this noise will quickly be forgotten.”

“Bitcoin has outperformed the Nasdaq over: 1 day 1 week 1 month Year-to-date 1 year 2 years 3 years 5 years 10 years,” posted Matthew Sigel, head of Digital Assets Research at investment management firm VanEck. “You think it’s done?”

Attention now turns to the Federal Reserve, according to Danny Scott of CoinCorner, who said that the central bank lowering interest rates and introducing quantitative easing to stimulate the economy amid growing recession fears is “likely to have a positive impact on Bitcoin, as we’ve seen in the past.”

Scott also pointed to Bitcoin’s “halving effect” which takes place every four years, in which the reward that miners receive for confirming transactions is cut in half, a mechanism built into the currency’s protocol to keep the total supply below 21 million.

“We’re now approaching the 12-month mark since the last halving,” Scott said. “So this, combined with a potential tariff cooldown, the US strategic reserve, a potential recession, and countries around the world mining and buying Bitcoin amid the ongoing uncertainty of the U.S. dollar as the global reserve, we’re likely seeing history playing out in front of our eyes.”