Bitcoin may get ‘dragged around a bit’ amid Trump tariff fears: Exec

Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said Bitcoin’s price volatility may not be over after the cryptocurrency briefly fell to $102,000 on Friday, following US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff on Chinese imports.

“If the broader risk-off mood holds, Bitcoin can get dragged around a bit before it finds support and starts to decouple again,” Klippsten told Cointelegraph on Friday.

Klippsten said that Bitcoiners should expect some turbulence over the coming days. “Macro-driven dips like this usually wash out leveraged traders and weak hands, then reset positioning for the next leg up,” Klippsten said.

$8 billion wiped out in crypto market

Over the past 24 hours, around $2.19 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) long positions have been liquidated, contributing to a total of $8.02 billion in long liquidations across the broader crypto market, according to CoinGlass.

“We’ve got a little panic in the markets right now, classic macro whiplash. Trump and China are trading tariff threats, equities are off, and traders are scrambling to derisk,” Klippsten added.

Cointelegraph head of markets Ray Salmond said that leveraged traders “were totally caught off guard” as Trump’s tariff announcement “sent shockwaves across the crypto market.”

Bitcoin has slightly recovered trading at $113,270 at the time of publication. Source: CoinMarketCap

Salmond explained that Bitcoin’s price dislocation between crypto exchange Coinbase, where the BTC/USD pair fell to $107,000 and and crypto exchange Binance perpetual futures, where the BTC/USDT pair crashed to $102,000, “really illustrates the severity of the cascading liquidations and how stops were completely obliterated.”

Salmond pointed to liquidation heatmap data from Hyblock, which shows “literally all downside long liquidity absorbed, with a liquidation cluster $102,000 to $97,000 remaining.”

Bitcoin liquidation heatmap, 7-day look back. Source Hyblock

It’s not the first time Bitcoin has dropped sharply after a Trump tariff announcement. In April, Trump’s first tariff announcements sent shockwaves through crypto markets and sparked fears of a recession.

On Feb. 1, when Trump signed an executive order to impose import tariffs on goods from China, Canada, and Mexico, Bitcoin fell below $100,000.

Bitcoin analysts are staying optimistic

Several Bitcoin analysts say the most recent price drop could present a buying opportunity.

Bitwise Invest senior investment strategist Juan Leon said in an X post that “the best time to buy BTC has tended to be when it is being dragged down by broader markets.”

Meanwhile, Bitwise Invest chief investment officer Matt Hougan reminded his 85,900 X followers of a typical pattern among market participants, noting that while many say they’ll buy Bitcoin during a price pullback, they often hesitate when it happens because “the market doesn’t ‘feel’ good at that point.”

“It never feels good when you buy the dip. The dip comes when sentiment drops. Writing the number down can be a good form of discipline,” Hougan said.