Bitcoin falls below US$92,000 as tariff fears weigh on risk assets
It slid by as much as 3.6% to below US$92,000 during Asia trading hours on Monday, while other tokens posted steeper losses
[NEW YORK] Cryptocurrencies fell sharply as risk assets slipped, and haven demand strengthened, after US President Donald Trump proposed new levies on eight European countries.
Bitcoin slid by as much as 3.6 per cent to below US$92,000 during Asia trading hours on Monday (Jan 19), while other tokens posted steeper losses. Ether, the second-largest digital asset, shed 4.9 per cent of its value, while Solana fell by 8.6 per cent.
The sell-off knocked about US$100 billion off the crypto market’s total value, data by crypto data and analysis company CoinGecko showed.
Bitcoin pared some of those losses to trade around 2.5 per cent down as of 6 am in New York.
Trump said over the weekend that he would impose a 10 per cent tariff on goods from eight European countries starting from Feb 1, rising to 25 per cent in June unless a deal for a “purchase of Greenland” occurs.
This resulted in US equity-index futures slumping as trading began on Monday, while haven assets gold and silver surged to record levels.
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Trump’s comments drew rebuke from European leaders, who are now poised to halt the approval of a trade agreement struck in 2025.
Digital assets had been enjoying a promising start to the year, after ending 2025 in a malaise, unable to mount a sustained recovery from a brutal October rout.
Bitcoin rose to just shy of US$98,000 on Jan 14, with strong inflows into a group of US-listed exchange-traded funds for the token.
That was seen as “a rebound from the oversold levels driven by tax-loss selling and general capitulation coming into year-end”, said Richard Galvin, co-founder of Sydney-based hedge fund DACM.
The latest bout of tariff concerns pumped the brakes on that, while gold hitting all-time highs confirms the selling is “more a risk-off move than anything crypto-specific”, Galvin added.
About US$790 million of bullish bets on crypto were liquidated in the past 24 hours, CoinGlass data shows.
Traders see US$90,000 as the next stop if current support fails, “while bulls point to institutional demand as a potential floor”, said Rachael Lucas, an analyst at Australian cryptocurrency exchange platform BTC Markets. BLOOMBERG
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