Bitcoin Plunges Amid Trump's Tariff Threats and Bybit Hack

Bitcoin's price has experienced a sharp decline, causing concern among investors. The BTC price has dropped to $86,586, down 8.71% in the last 24 hours. This sudden Bitcoin crash has led to massive liquidations in the cryptocurrency market, raising questions about what triggered this downturn.

One key factor behind the Bitcoin price crash is the recent escalation of tariff threats by former U.S. President Donald Trump. On February 24, Trump announced that sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico would take effect next week, ending a temporary pause. This follows his earlier executive order on February 1, imposing 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods and an additional 10% duty on Canadian energy. The re-escalation of trade tensions has contributed to uncertainty in global markets, affecting investor sentiment. As a result, Bitcoin, which is often seen as a risk-sensitive asset, has been impacted. The BTC price fell to $86,200 during Tuesday's early European trading session, extending its losses from the previous day. The market reacted to the news with a series of liquidations totaling $1.34 billion, wiping out approximately 367,500 traders, according to Coinglass data.

The Bitcoin price crash was also influenced by last week's security breach at the Bybit cryptocurrency exchange. Funds worth $1.4 billion were stolen, causing Bybit to lose around $2 billion in Bitcoin from its reserve, as reported by CryptoQuant. A total of 20,190 BTC was withdrawn from Bybit's reserve from Friday to Tuesday, reaching levels last seen in early March 2024. The Bybit hack increased market anxiety, leading to more withdrawals as investors moved their assets to safer platforms. This contributed to the decline in BTC price, adding to the selling pressure already triggered by the tariff news. Despite assurances from Bitcoin proponents that the hack was linked to Ethereum's vulnerabilities, the resulting market volatility affected Bitcoin as well.

The Bitcoin price crash has caused a wave of liquidations across the cryptocurrency market. According to CoinGlass, nearly 390,000 traders were liquidated in the past 24 hours, resulting in a total loss of $1.59 billion. Most of these liquidations were from long positions,