By Elsa Ohlen
Bitcoin, XRP and other cryptocurrencies struggled Monday as investors prepared for an escalating trade war on the back of new tariffs coming into effect this week from President Donald Trump.
The world's largest digital coin by market value, Bitcoin, is down 2.4% to $81,482 over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.
XRP, the cryptocurrency used to settle and facilitate transactions on Ripple Labs payment platform, dropped 5.3% to $2.07 over the last 24 hours by early Monday.
Despite cryptos often being referred to as "digital gold" it trades much more like risky assets than safe haven assets such as gold. On Monday, the market remained under pressure and stock futures fell on the last trading day of the quarter, largely on increased uncertainty around Trump's tariff policies.
Other cryptos were down too -- Ethereum lost 3%, Solana was down 1.7% and Cardano dropped 7%.
"[Market pressure is] forcing us to consider BTC's return below $80,000 as the main scenario for the near term," FxPro analyst Alex Kuptsikevich notes.
However, Matthew Mena, research analyst at 21Shares, a crypto asset firm suggested crytos could be reignited by regulatory clarity, stablecoin legislation moving forwards, and the U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve becoming real. He said this could potentially push Bitcoin back to $100,000.
Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com
This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
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March 31, 2025 06:58 ET (10:58 GMT)
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