Nearly $1.1 trillion has been wiped from cryptocurrency markets in recent weeks as confidence fades in Donald Trump’s promise to make the US the “crypto capital of the world”.
Bitcoin tumbled to $93,730 on Sunday, far below its record high above $126,000 set just last month. The plunge has erased nearly $580bn from the world’s largest digital asset. At one point over the weekend, bitcoin had given up all its gains for the year, extending a sell-off triggered by one of the biggest crypto crashes in history in October.
By Monday, bitcoin remained subdued below $96,000, with investors still reeling from last month’s brutal liquidation that wiped out around $400bn (£300bn) in less than 24 hours.
The collapse has intensified scrutiny of Mr Trump’s ambition to become the self-styled “crypto president”. While his election victory in November sparked a powerful digital asset rally, enthusiasm has since evaporated. Even his own Trump memecoin, which briefly soared to a $9bn valuation days after its January launch, has slumped back to $1.1bn.
Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said bitcoin’s sharp reversal shows how swiftly the hype has unwound:
“A month after its euphoric highs, Bitcoin’s Trump-trade sugar rush faded.”
He added that crypto now “feels like a passenger — not a driver” of market sentiment, as global traders brace for a wave of delayed US economic data following the record government shutdown. The release of major payroll figures on Thursday is set to be a key flashpoint.
Markets are also on edge ahead of Nvidia’s Q3 results on Wednesday — a crucial test of whether the AI boom is turning into a bubble.
Sentiment among everyday crypto traders has deteriorated sharply, said Matthew Hougan, CIO at Bitwise Asset Management:
“The sentiment in crypto retail is pretty negative. They don’t want to live through another 50pc pullback. People are front-running that by stepping out of the market.”
