Bitcoin fell sharply to a near one-month low in early morning trade on Monday, extending recent losses as risk appetite was decimated by U.S. President Donald Trump imposing steep trade tariffs and sparking a global trade war.
Traders remained on edge over a potential “Black Monday” event akin to a market crash seen in 1987, where global stock markets could fall sharply on Monday after logging steep losses in the past week.
Cryptocurrency markets largely slumped in tandem with stocks, as global appetite for risk-driven stocks largely unwound. Total crypto market capitalization also slumped by about $500 billion since last week.
Bitcoin fell as much as 8.6% to $75,867 by 05:22 ET (09:22 GMT), marking its lowest level since November 2024.
Trump tariffs decimate global markets, crypto hit
Trump’s tariffs saw global equity markets wipe out about $4 trillion since last Wednesday, with crypto markets also losing ground in tandem.
Traders turned risk-averse in the face of heightened economic uncertainty under Trump, especially as several countries targeted by Trump decried the tariffs and outlined retaliation.
Speculative assets such as crypto were also hit particularly hard by increased risk aversion, with traders largely sticking to safe havens such as the Japanese yen, and gold.
Bitcoin’s losses were exacerbated by nearly $160 million worth of coins being moved onto crypto exchange Kraken- a move that could herald a potential sale by a major whale.
This put traders on edge over a potential Black Monday event, especially if U.S. markets slump further later in the day. Any losses in equities are likely to spill over into crypto.
“As global equity markets witness a shake-down that has seen #BlackMonday trending on X, there is the prospect that we may be entering a very different market terrain. We’ve already seen the proportion of stablecoins on the weekly transactions on the Mercuryo platform rise from about 37 percent in January to around 50 percent in March," Petr Kozyakov, Co-Founder and CEO at Mercuryo, told Investing.com
"Traders are cautiously waiting on the sidelines for opportunities to re-enter the market and weighing if there may be evidence of overselling. Meanwhile, the underlying strength of Bitcoin remains. The long-term future prospects of the new digital gold are brighter than ever.”
Crypto price today: altcoins plummet, test recent lows amid risk aversion
Broader crypto prices plummeted in tandem with Bitcoin, with world no.2 crypto Ether tumbling over 17% at $1,485.59- its weakest since March 2023.
XRP sank 16.5% to $1.75, while Solana, Cardano, and Polygon plummeted between 14% and 17%.
Among meme tokens, Dogecoin fell nearly 17%, while $TRUMP slumped 16.5% to a record low of $7.57.