Bitcoin price today: steady at $82k ahead of Trump tariffs

Investing.com -- Bitcoin cut earlier losses to trade around the flatline on Monday, as risk assets rebounded on the final day of trade for the month, though sentiment was soured by signs of crypto selling pressure ahead.

Bitcoin traders were spooked by on-chain data showing about 4000 Bitcoins, worth about $332 million, were transferred onto crypto exchange Kraken. Movement of tokens onto an exchange usually heralds a potential sale.

Bitcoin is up around 0.2% at $82,429.0 as of 5:00 p.m. ET (22:00 GMT).

Trump tariffs, recession fears weigh

Bitcoin and broader crypto assets recovered, following aa broad rebound in risk assets as investors appear to buy the dips even as more Trump tariffs loom.

The  Wall Street Journal report over the weekend showed that Trump was considering higher tariffs against a broader set of countries.

Trump is set to unveil his plans for reciprocal trade tariffs on major U.S. trading partners on April 2, and is also set to impose tariffs on key market sectors.

The WSJ report said Trump’s tariffs could target up to 25 countries and impose tariffs of 20% against individual countries- a move that stands to destabilize global trade and draw retaliation from major economies.

Trump’s tariffs and their potential economic impact have been a key point of uncertainty for markets, having largely offset some positive cues from Trump’s establishment of a Bitcoin reserve.

Speculative assets such as crypto tend to underperform in times of economic uncertainty. Recent losses in Bitcoin saw the crypto wipe out nearly 40% of its value from record highs around the time of Trump’s January inauguration.

Fears of a U.S. recession also further undermined crypto prices, with Goldman Sachs raising its probability of a U.S. recession to 35% from 20% in the next 12 months. The investment bank cited uncertainty over Trump’s tariffs, sticky inflation, and signs of deteriorating consumer and business sentiment in the U.S.

Crypto markets were also reeling from a strong U.S. inflation reading on Friday.

Crypto price today: Altcoins mostly higher, but nurse losses for March

Broader crypto prices rebounded in tandem with Bitcoin, and were also nursing steep losses for March.

World no.2 crypto Ether rose 1.1% to $1,827.05, and was trading down around 19% in March. The crypto also hit a 16-month low.

XRP is down 2% to $2.09, having largely wiped out any gains made after the Securities and Exchange Commission, under Trump’s watch, dropped its long-running case against issuer Ripple . XRP was trading down 2% for March.

Solana was up nearly 1%, while Cardano has declined by about 1%.

Among meme tokens, Dogecoin fell 0.7% to $0.166032, while $TRUMP fell 1.3%.

(Ambar contributed to this report.)

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