Trump's Return: Bitcoin Millionaires Plummet Amidst Market Turmoil

The return of Donald Trump to the White House in January 2025 marked a significant turning point for the cryptocurrency market, particularly for Bitcoin (BTC) millionaires. Initially, his re-election sparked optimism, leading to the creation of 11,000 new Bitcoin millionaires between October 7 and November 6, 2024. However, this euphoria was short-lived, and the crypto bull market that continued into early 2025 was soon followed by stagnation and decline.

Between January 21, the day after Trump's inauguration, and February 18, the number of BTC addresses holding more than $1 million worth of the coin dropped by 22,279. During the first weeks of Trump's second term, an average of 795 Bitcoin millionaire addresses were wiped daily. The decline was particularly stark for high-value wallets, with the number of addresses holding over $1 million in BTC falling from 157,563 to 138,693, and those with more than $10 million dropping from 18,801 to 15,392.

The downward trend extended across all wallet sizes. At press time, there were nearly 3 million fewer addresses with a balance between $1 and $9,999 compared to January 21, while the number of those with between $10,000 and $999,999.99 witnessed a sharp reduction of 641,489. In total, the erasure of 3.54 million addresses with $1 or more worth of Bitcoin meant that, on average, Trump's second administration oversaw the wiping of an average of 126,262 daily.

The swift transition from optimism to uncertainty can be traced back to a series of shocks affecting the market in recent weeks. Just days after the inauguration, the release of the novel Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) model DeepSeek triggered a massive technology sector selloff that had a spillover effect in the cryptocurrency market. One week later, President Trump's planned tariffs against China, Mexico, and Canada added to the uncertainty. More recently, the latest figures demonstrated an uncomfortable rise in inflation in early 2025, mere days after the president advocated for further interest rate cuts.