Bitcoin’s (BTC) weekend rally ended in tears on Monday (March 3) as the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization closed out the U.S. trading session down nearly 10% to $85,000.
The sharp reversal wiped out virtually all of the gains that BTC saw over the weekend after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to create a U.S. strategic crypto reserve. Bitcoin had initially rallied to $93,000 on that news before those gains faded during Monday’s trading session.
Other cryptocurrencies that are expected to also be part of the U.S. reserve fared worse, with the price of Ethereum (ETH) falling 15% to $2,135, while Solana (SOL) plunged 18% on March 3 to trade at $143.05 per digital token. All of the major cryptocurrencies went from green to red on the day.
New Tariffs
Stocks related to crypto also got beaten up, with crypto exchanges Coinbase Global (COIN) and Robinhood (HOOD) falling 5% and 6%, respectively after initially rising to start the trading session. Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) went from a 14% gain when the market opened to trading down 2% at its close.
The U.S. strategic crypto reserve was overshadowed by news that the Trump administration is going forward with 25% tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico beginning on March 4. The threat of a trade war with America’s allies has investors fleeing riskier assets such as crypto.
BTC is now down more than 20% from its January all-time high of just over $109,000, which occurred on the day of President Trump’s inauguration.
Is BTC a Buy?
Most Wall Street firms don’t offer ratings or price targets on Bitcoin, so we’ll look at the cryptocurrency’s three-month performance instead. As one can see in the chart below, the price of BTC has declined 4.66% in the last 12 weeks.
