Trump’s tariff shocks set markets back as Bitcoin, Ether stumble into August

The global crypto market kicked off August on a cautious note, printing red indexes all around. Investors reacted to a stronger dollar and renewed geopolitical tensions fanned by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. Bitcoin briefly dipped to $114.2K zone before clawing back to trade above $115k.

Ethereum, one of the biggest gainers of the last month, mirrored the BTC move. ETH price plunged straight from $3,860 to $3,600. The volatility came as the US Dollar Index (DXY) surged past 100, its highest level since May. The jump was fueled by safe-haven demand and tightening global liquidity conditions.

$758M liquidated as bulls get burned

The cumulative digital assets market cap dropped by around 4% to stand at $3.74 trillion. However, its 24-hour trading volume spiked by 12% to hit $195 billion.

CoinGlass data shows that the ongoing sell-off sparked $758 million in liquidations across crypto markets in the last 24 hours, wiping out over 183,000 traders. The largest single liquidation of $13.79 million ETHUSD_PERP occurred on Binance.

Data shows that $706.6 million (93%) of all the liquidated positions turned out to be long bets. This suggests that traders were hoping that the crypto market would continue its bull run in August, but it went the other way. The fear and greed index stood neutral, looking for the next move.

Bitcoin price dropped by more than 3% in the last 24 hours. BTC is trading at an average price of $115,035 at press time. As per Cryptoquant, Bitcoin just saw its third major profit-taking wave of this bull run. The realized profits spiked to $6 billion to $8 billion in late July. This was on par with March and December 2024 peaks. It highlighted that new whales led the selling above $120K.

Trump tariffs slam crypto

Altcoins also nosedived with Bitcoin. XRP and Solana prices dipped by more than 7% each, while Cardano and SUI dropped by 8% and 10% respectively. The biggest meme crypto, Dogecoin, is trading down by 9% at $0.205 at press time. The largest altcoin, Ethereum, is down by 6%, trading at $3,627.

CryptoQuant noted that altcoin futures are exploding even as Bitcoin dominance plateaus. Altcoins now represent 83% of total futures volume, with Ethereum up 170% from recent lows and just 23% off its all-time high. Meanwhile, activity from retail investors appears to be picking up. BTC transactions under $10,000 rose nearly 10% over the past month.

Trump announced a 10% global minimum tariff and 15% with duties for countries with trade surpluses against the US. Global markets are extending selloff as investors grapple with the economic fallout of Trump’s sweeping new tariffs. However, they also brace for a potentially weak US jobs report. Economists expect only 100,000 new jobs added in July and for unemployment to tick up to 4.2%.

Futures on the S&P 500 dropped nearly 1% early Friday. This points to a fourth straight day of declines, while Amazon tumbled over 8% in premarket trading after its earnings disappointed investors. Even as megacap tech firms like Microsoft and Meta posted solid earnings, their performances failed to lift market sentiment. 

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