How Trump’s Statements Influenced the Crypto Market in 2025. Timeline

Hoping for the continuation of Bitcoin’s rapid growth that began in 2024, many crypto investors were looking forward to US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in 2025. Since the end of January, Trump initiated the creation of a government Bitcoin reserve and signed an executive order on “strengthening US leadership in digital finance.” Despite these efforts, the crypto market faced a massive sell-off that began on Trump’s inauguration day — January 20.

Bitcoin’s (BTC) historical price maximum was reached precisely on Trump’s inauguration day — at around $110,000. After that, according to Coinmarketcap, by April 10, BTC quotes lost about 25%, falling to $82,000 — the total crypto market capitalization decreased by the same percentage, dropping to $2.6 trillion. A few hours after the inauguration, the US president introduced trade tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada for the first time, after which a prolonged correction of the main cryptocurrency began.

“We’ve entered a new era of protectionism, and what’s concerning is that we still don’t understand where this will all stop,” commented Pav Hundal, Swyftx’s leading market analyst, on the situation surrounding tariffs and its impact on markets.

Early February

Before the signing of the first decree on trade tariffs — on February 1, a 25% tariff was imposed on almost all goods from Canada and Mexico, as well as 10% for China — the price of Bitcoin was predominantly above $102,000. But then within two days, BTC crashed by 11% — to a local minimum of $91,300 on February 3.

Just a day later, Trump suspended the introduction of tariffs for 30 days, which was perceived positively by the market and led to a sharp increase in Bitcoin’s price by 12.5% in one day — to a level above $102,500. Such volatility resulted in losses for cryptocurrency traders of at least $2 billion.

On February 4, China announced retaliatory measures against US tariffs, which led to sell-offs in the crypto market, when the price of Bitcoin fell below $100,000 per coin. Since then, the price has not recovered to previous levels, according to data as of April 10.

For the rest of February, Trump did not introduce additional tariffs but continued to actively and publicly announce the development of a more extensive plan for a wider range of countries and goods.

However, on February 24, Bitcoin quotations and the crypto market were pressured by the situation with the hack of one of the largest crypto exchanges, Bybit, for a total of $1.4 billion. After that, the price of BTC fell continuously for several days, dropping below $80,000 for the first time in 2025.

March

Another event, besides tariffs, was Trump’s announcement on March 2 that the US cryptocurrency reserve would include Solana (SOL), Ripple’s XRP, Cardano (ADA), and Bitcoin, after which Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies grew by tens of percent during the day.

Amid discussions about the crypto reserve on March 3, Bitcoin rose by approximately 13%, above $96,000. However, as expected, this time without changes in timing, the previously delayed tariffs came into effect on March 4. This time, Bitcoin took about a day to lose 13% again, dropping to $81,000.

A few days later, China introduced its retaliatory tariffs, including an additional 15% on American agricultural products such as chicken and corn, as well as 10% on products like soybeans and fruits.

These actions coincided with another wave of Bitcoin price decline — this time, the local price minimum was below $77,000 on March 11. After that, the first cryptocurrency traded in a narrow range until early April.

April

US authorities announced the introduction of tariffs ranging from 10 to 50% for more than 180 countries on the evening of April 2, and a few days later increased tariffs for China by an additional 50%.

The Bitcoin price barely reacted to the US tariffs introduction on April 2, as well as in the following few days. However, starting from April 6, amid public statements about additional 50% tariffs for China, the price of Bitcoin fell below $75,000 on April 7.

Two days later, when the crypto market capitalization was near the minimum values of 2025, on April 9, Trump announced that he had postponed the introduction of large-scale trade tariffs for 90 days — this led to a rapid growth of the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin quotes soared by 12% — above $83,500.

Conclusion

Thus, over several months, almost all major movements in Bitcoin quotations coincided with events surrounding trade tariffs, mainly related to the US and China.

Whether this relationship will continue to define crypto trends throughout the year or if the market will find its own direction independent of trade policies remains to be seen. For now, all eyes are on the White House and potential international responses as we wait to see what happens next in this evolving economic landscape.