Bitcoin Slightly Drops After Trump's New Tariff Announcement

US President Donald Trump continues to escalate trade tensions by announcing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the US.

In a meeting on February 9, President Donald Trump said he would impose a 25% import tariff on all steel and aluminum imported into the US.
According to the American Iron and Steel Association, the largest steel suppliers to the US come from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam. Meanwhile, Canada accounted for 79% of total US aluminum imports in the first 11 months of 2024, with Mexico also playing a leading role as an aluminum supplier to the world's number one economy.

During his first term, Mr. Trump also imposed a 25% tariff on steel and 10% on aluminum. However, he later exempted some important trading partners including Canada, Mexico and Brazil.
In addition, the 47th US President also issued a stern warning that the government will impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that maintain high tariffs on US goods to ensure that the United States is treated fairly in international trade. According to the plan, this policy will be announced on February 11 and 12 and will take effect immediately. Trump stated:

"If they tax us up to 130% while we don't collect a penny from them, that situation can't go on much longer."
The latest tax move by the US government comes amid escalating global trade tensions in recent weeks after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 25% tax on goods from Canada, Mexico and a 10% tax on Chinese goods, sending the crypto market into a tailspin.

However, on February 3, the crypto market gradually recovered with Donald Trump's decision to temporarily suspend import tariffs on Mexico and Canada after reaching an agreement to control smuggling and immigration with the governments of the two countries.

The news caused the crypto market to fluctuate slightly, with BTC falling to $94,000 before recovering to $97,000.

This is also the first time in four consecutive days that Bitcoin has closed around $96,500, reflecting that market sentiment is still extremely cautious.

ETH also saw similar fluctuations, hitting a low of $2,537 before bouncing back to $2,645, down slightly by 1.2% in the past 24 hours.

However, ETH is facing huge selling pressure from institutional speculators on Wall Street. Investment funds on the CME exchange have pushed Ethereum short positions to a record high with the number of short contracts increasing by 40% in just one week and increasing by more than 500% since November 2024. This is the highest short position in history, showing that the belief in Ethereum's recovery is wavering.

Most altcoins have corrected slightly but some tokens could not withstand the strong selling pressure, typically RAY, ViRTUAL and ENA when recording a significant decline during the day.
Memecoin TRUMP also recorded a decrease of more than 12.9% in the past 24 hours and is currently trading around $15.33.
The total crypto market capitalization plunged from $3.15 trillion to $3.1 trillion but quickly recovered to $3.17 trillion, showing that money has not completely withdrawn from the market.
In addition, the Fear & Greed Index is still in the fear zone, falling to 36 points on February 10, down 10 points from last week as macro fluctuations from US trade policy are making many investors worried.