(Feb 3): Crypto traders responded to tariffs announced over the weekend by US president Donald Trump by slashing positions in a range of tokens.

Ether, the second-largest digital asset by market value, fell as much as 27% to US$2,135 (RM9,511) on Monday morning in Asia before paring losses, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the token’s largest intraday decline in percentage terms since May 2021.

Trump’s tariffs are expected to take effect on billions of dollars worth of goods imported by the US from Canada and Mexico and risk rattling global trade. Trump also ramped up his threats to impose tariffs on the European Union.

The negative sentiment in markets weighed on other cryptocurrencies, with bitcoin at one point down nearly 6% and smaller tokens posting even steeper losses.

“Trump’s tariff war is impacting the whole market,” said Caroline Bowler, chief executive officer of BTC Markets. “Concerns about trade wars and stagflation, triggering recessions, are cascading across alt coins and bitcoin.”

The crypto market gyrations represent a sharp reversal of recent gains attributable to Trump’s pro-crypto statements on the campaign trail and after his election. The Republican signed an executive order on Jan 24 that created a working group expected to deliver clear rules for US crypto firms within six months. The group is also charged with examining the creation of a crypto stockpile.

“Ether is being battered more than bitcoin, solana and ripple mainly because there is expectation that the latter are likely to be included in a digital asset stockpile in the US as American-led companies,” said Jonathan Yark, senior quant trader at market maker Acheron Trading. “As a result, ether’s liquidity is far less resilient and subject to increased volatility compared to its peers.”

Despite optimism about Trump’s plans, his tariff announcements over the weekend “saw a strong bid for downside on Saturday and Sunday as hedges on larger global macro ramifications,” said Sean McNulty, head of APAC derivatives at digital-asset prime brokerage FalconX. For now, bitcoin is bearing the selloff better than smaller, more speculative tokens, he added.

In derivatives markets, more than US$1 billion of bullish crypto positions were liquidated in early Asia hours on Monday, with ether bets worst affected, according to Coinglass data. That’s the most in a single day since Dec 9.

“The risk of a protracted trade war with China, in addition to US allies, does not bode well for the volatile and rate dependent digital asset space,” said Sean Dawson, head of research at crypto trading platform Derive.xyz. He added that ether may find support at US$1,900 to US$2,000, with options markets “giving a 25% chance ETH hits US$2,000 before the end of the month.”

As of early afternoon in Singapore, ether was trading around US$2,500 and bitcoin at US$93,000, while ripple-linked XRP was down 17% at US$2.20.

The crypto market’s total value slid by about US$360 billion on Monday, according to CoinGecko data, while memecoins launched in recent weeks by Trump and his wife Melania were also caught up in the selloff — trading about 75% and 90% below their respective peaks.

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