Bitcoin Plunges Amid Trump Tariffs, ETFs See Massive Outflows

Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies continued to drop significantly on Tuesday amid market uncertainty surrounding President Trump's new tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Bitcoin fell more than 8% in the past 24 hours, dropping below $86,000 at one point, with ETH, XRP and SOL seeing steeper declines of over 10%. The GMCI 30 index, which represents a selection of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, is down 9.6% over the past day.

On Monday, Trump announced his intention to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico once the current 30-day suspension expires next week — contributing to a risk-off mood in traditional markets, too. The growing bearishness is also reflected in the Crypto Fear and Greed Index — a market gauge that analyzes social media activity, volatility, trends and prices — which recently fell to a five-month low of 25.

Standard Chartered Global Head of Digital Assets Research Geoffrey Kendrick anticipates a potential rebound in the medium term, noting that lower U.S. Treasury yields — driven by risk-off sentiment following Friday's PMI data — could ultimately benefit bitcoin. Traders are also watching upcoming U.S. inflation figures for signs of a potential bullish reversal if the data trend toward the Federal Reserve's target, with analysts at Bernstein still reiterating their $200,000 bitcoin price prediction by year-end.

U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $539 million in net daily outflows on Monday, led by $247 million from Fidelity's FBTC, marking the fifth-largest outflow to date. The Bitcoin ETFs' five-day outflow streak has now reached $1.1 billion. However, total cumulative net inflows remain above $39 billion, with $111 billion in assets under management. Meanwhile, the U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs saw $78 million worth of net outflows on Monday, led by BlackRock's ETHA, with their three-day outflow streak now totaling $100 million.

Another U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF issuer, Bitwise, announced it raised $70 million from investors, including Electric Capital, MassMutual and Haun Ventures, to expand its crypto asset management operations. Bitwise has over 100 employees and oversees $12