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President Donald Trump’s first 100 days brought many wins for crypto supporters, but couldn’t prevent Bitcoin from dropping 10% since he took office on January 20.
Bitcoin reached a record high of $109,225 on Trump’s inauguration day. The price then tumbled to below $74,500 on April 7. It has since bounced back to around $95,400. This rollercoaster happened despite Trump’s push to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world,” according to market data.
The total cryptocurrency market cap also dropped from $3.49 trillion to $2.97 trillion during this period.
“The enthusiasm and optimism peaked around Trump’s inauguration day, but it has been pretty much downhill from there,” said Alice Liu, head of research at CoinMarketCap.
Trump made several crypto-friendly moves. Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, created a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, dropped lawsuits against Coinbase and Ripple, and scrapped rules that kept banks from holding crypto.
Trump also banned the development of a central bank digital currency and appointed several pro-crypto officials to key positions, including Paul Atkins as SEC Chair and David Sacks as White House AI and crypto czar.
Yet these regulatory wins haven’t translated to price gains, with many experts blaming Trump’s aggressive trade policies.
The president’s implementation of tariffs against major trading partners, including a 10% minimum tariff on all countries with tariffs on U.S. goods announced on April 2 (dubbed “Liberation Day”), sent markets tumbling across the board.
Former White House aide Anthony Scaramucci criticized Trump’s approach. “He’s had the worst 95 days in modern presidential history… You had a growing economy that’s now heading into a medium-sized recession,” he told Cointelegraph.
Some also worry about potential conflicts of interest as Trump launched his own $TRUMP token after taking office.
The new Bitcoin reserve has drawn criticism as well for using Bitcoin that the government has already seized rather than implementing active purchase policies.
Market analysts suggest long-term positive effects from Trump’s policies may still emerge. The SEC has dismantled many enforcement actions from the previous administration, and Congress is working on new stablecoin rules.
Banks will also need time to build strategies and hire staff before entering the digital asset space. “Just because you allow banks to participate in the digital asset space doesn’t mean they turn a switch on tomorrow and they’re there,” said Eric Rose from StoneX Digital.
For now, though, fears about trade wars and recession have overshadowed the regulatory improvements, leaving crypto investors still waiting for the boom Trump promised.
