Cryptocurrency prices slid on Monday, with bitcoin at a three-week low and ether at its lowest since early September, as the spectre of a global trade war put investors on edge and pushed them out of risky assets.
Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known crypto, fell to $95,777, touching a three-week low of around $91,441.89 on Monday morning in Asia.
Hut 8 fell 10%; Canaan fell 9%; MARA Holdings fell 7%; Riot Platforms, CleanSpark fell 6%; Coinbase fell 5.5%; MicroStrategy fell 5%.
Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Mexican and most Canadian imports, and 10% on goods from China, starting on Tuesday.
Canada and Mexico, the top two U.S. trading partners, immediately vowed retaliatory measures, and China said it would challenge Trump's levies at the World Trade Organization.
Cryptocurrencies trade around the clock, including on weekends, and have lately been sensitive to markets' broader sentiment. Investors worry that tariffs can hurt growth and company earnings as well as be inflationary.
"Crypto is really the only way to express risk over the weekend, and on news like this crypto resorts to a risk proxy," said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.
At the same time, there is added downward pressure on crypto after a strong rally in the wake of Trump's election, as some investors have felt disappointed at the lack of immediate moves to boost crypto or loosen regulations since he took office.
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