NEW YORK: Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies dipped after President Donald Trump imposed tariffs on US trading partners worldwide, triggering a slump in risk assets.
The largest digital asset fell as much as 4% to about US$82,000 yesterday morning in Singapore before paring losses, while other tokens, including ether and XRP also declined.
Solana had at one point shed more than 9% of its value.
Trump announced on Wednesday that he will apply a minimum 10% tariff on all exporters to the United States.
He added that he will slap additional duties on around 60 nations with the largest trade imbalances with the United States.
China will face a 34% rate, while the European Union will have a 20% levy and Japan is seeing a 24% tariff.
Cryptocurrencies bore the announcement relatively well at first, but they began to falter as traders began their day in Asia.
“As a risk-on asset, cryptocurrencies have generally traded poorly during periods of uncertainty following announcements such as steady high rates or the introduction of trade tariffs,” said John Wu, president at Ava Labs. — Bloomberg