$300B lost as crypto market reacts to Trump tariffs

The cryptocurrency market saw a sharp decline, erasing $300 billion in value following new U.S. trade tariffs enacted by President Donald Trump.

Market capitalisation dropped nearly 14% in the past 36 hours, falling from over $3.2 trillion on Sunday evening to $2.82 trillion.

This decline wiped out the brief gains that followed Trump’s announcement of a U.S. crypto reserve on March 2.

According to Coinglass, over 311,000 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, with losses exceeding $1 billion.

“Trump pumped it with a tweet. Trump dumped it with his tariffs. All his doing. Sad but true,” economist Alex Krüger commented on X.

Trader and analyst ‘DonAlt’ suggested that investors likely realised Trump “is probably not gonna be able to push this through Congress overnight.”

“Tomorrow, tariffs — 25% on Canada and 25% on Mexico. And that’ll start… What they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs,” stated Trump, confirming the tariffs during a press conference on March 3.

He also signed an executive order raising tariffs on Chinese imports to 20%, up from the previous 10%.

The impact extended beyond cryptocurrencies, as the SP 500 also experienced a sharp decline, losing approximately $1.5 trillion in market value.

Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) dropped to an intraday low of $82,864 during early trading in Asia on Tuesday, marking a nearly 12% decline in just over a day.

The BTC fear and greed index fell into extreme fear territory.

Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) also faced a steep decline, falling to just above $2,000, its lowest level since November 2023.

Altcoins mentioned in Trump’s crypto reserve announcement also lost most of their recent gains within 24 hours.

Additionally, the market downturn closed a $10,000 CME Bitcoin futures gap that had opened over the weekend when traditional markets were closed.