Trump announced Wednesday that he will apply a minimum 10% tariff on all exporters to the US and slap additional duties on around 60 nations with the largest trade imbalances with the US. China will face a 34% rate, while the European Union will have a 20% levy and Japan is seeing a 24% tariff. Cryptocurrencies bore the announcement relatively well at first, but began to falter as traders began their day in Asia and into the start of equity trading in the US. “As a risk-on asset, cryptocurrencies have generally traded poorly during periods of uncertainty following announcements such as steady high rates or the introduction of trade tariffs,” said John Wu, president at Ava Labs.
Equities tumbled from Asia to Europe to the US as investors were taken aback by the magnitude of the tariffs. US equities and the dollar bore some of the worst selling on speculation the president’s trade offensive will stunt the American economy.
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“The market views if growth slides, then traditional risk assets will slide and crypto is correlated to traditional risk assets,” said Zaheer Ebtikar, founder of crypto fund Split Capital.
