- Trump's tariff swings whipsawed markets this week.
- Bitcoin has declined since Trump inauguration.
- Market is focused on outcome of White House crypto summit.
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Strap in. The Trump tariff rollercoaster is at full throttle.
Markets whipsawed this week as President Donald Trump imposed, then partially rescinded, then reimposed, then re-rescinded 25% tariffs on the US’s top trading partners, Mexico and Canada.
The president’s protectionist policy wasn’t the only moving target.
On Thursday, David Sacks, the White House crypto and AI czar, appeared to walk back Trump’s announcement earlier in the week that altcoins such as XRP and Cardano would be included in a national Bitcoin strategic reserve.
Fuzzy plan
Instead, Sacks said the White House was committed to a reserve comprising Bitcoin and a separate stockpile of other digital assets.
Nic Carter, co-founder and partner at Castle Island Ventures, said the moves did little to clarify a fuzzy plan.
“So the government made all these L1 founders come to DC to kiss the ring, and the night before published the news that they’re not actually buying their bags after all,” he said in a post on X.
On Friday, expectations were running high that a first of its kind crypto summit at the White House would provide details.
Even so, the industry is increasingly divided about the wisdom of government-controlled crypto funds, Aleks Gilbert reported.
Volatile week
The summit capped an especially volatile week. On Monday, Bitcoin jumped more than 11% only to plunge 10% the next day as Trump finally launched his trade war.
Bitcoin rallied 6% later that day when the president signalled there would be exceptions to tariffs for the auto industry.
Even though some savvy investors made a killing on the swings by week’s end, many appeared to tire of the Trump rollercoaster.
Hovering around $88,000 in late afternoon trading UK time on Friday, Bitcoin has lost almost a fifth of its value since Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way, of course. Trump, the self-styled crypto president, pledged to give the industry everything it wanted.
Bybit hack
And, to a great degree, he has — the US Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped or paused a number of cases against industry players.
And the White House gutted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Andrew Flanagan reported.
Yet there are other forces at work.
The Lazarus Group’s $1.4 billion hack of Bybit, the Dubai-based exchange, jolted investors. Digging into the heist, Tim Craig reported how Bybit and other exchanges are picking up the pieces.
The hack was a reminder of crypto’s vulnerabilities. So too, was the volatility of Bitcoin and its ilk.
How Trump and his crypto allies persuade the nation that such a jumpy asset is key to US economic security is an open question.
Edward Robinson is the story editor for DL News. Contact the author at ed@dlnews.com.