MW Bitcoin falls in Trump's first 100 days, frustrating bulls looking for a crypto boom

By Frances Yue

Bitcoin fell 10% since Trump took office, after hitting a record on Inauguration Day

Crypto enthusiasts were hoping Donald Trump, who called himself the "crypto president," would send bitcoin soaring and bring more legitimacy to the industry during his second term in the White House. The president's first 100 days back in office instead have left some disappointed.

"The enthusiasm and optimism peaked around Trump's inauguration day, but it has been pretty much downhill from there," Alice Liu, head of research at CoinMarketCap, wrote to MarketWatch in emailed comments.

A combination of factors, such as uncertainty around Trump's trade policies and some frustrations by investors about the president's launch of his namesake meme coin days ahead of the inauguration, have contributed to the bearish shift in sentiment, Liu said.

Trump's executive order to create a strategic bitcoin (BTCUSD) reserve failed to impress investors who were looking for a more dynamic vehicle. The reserve largely relies on holdings of bitcoins seized by the government, rather than active purchases of the crypto. The latter approach could face major political hurdles.

Partly due to a bearish turn in sentiment, bitcoin was down 10.2% from its level a day ahead of Trump's inauguration day on Jan. 20. It was on that day that bitcoin hit a record at $109,225. The crypto took a hit earlier this month, along with other risk assets, over tariff concerns, falling to below $74,500 on April 7, before rebounding to around $95,400 Tuesday afternoon, according to the Dow Jones Market Data.

To be sure, investors were largely satisfied with the recently shifting regulatory stance on crypto, viewed as a pivot from the Biden administration's approach, which many bulls viewed as hostile.

For one thing, after Trump took over the Oval Office, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped lawsuits against several crypto companies, including crypto exchange Coinbase $(COIN)$ and digital payment company Ripple.

The SEC also repealed accounting guidance that had restricted banks from providing custody for crypto. Following Trump's inauguration, the agency issued new guidance to rescind the so-called Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121, which was introduced in 2022 and required companies to record liability for the crypto assets they safeguard.

What's more, Trump signed an executive order in January to set up a crypto working group, which was expected to propose a federal regulatory framework governing the issuance and operation of digital assets. Investors were still waiting for detailed plans.

"Those are all things that are incredibly bullish for the space, but they just take time to manifest," noted Eric Rose, head of digital-asset execution at StoneX Digital.

"Just because you allow banks to participate in the digital asset space doesn't mean they turn a switch on tomorrow and they're there, right? It takes time for them to build a strategy, decide where they want to be and how they'd implement that strategy, and hire people for that," Rose said in an interview, adding that it could entail a lead time of up to two years.

For Trump's policy to actually boost the adoption of digital assets, investors said they may need to see more concrete policies, such as tokens being classified as securities. Crypto industry participants also have been waiting for legislation to be passed around stablecoins.

They also hoped the SEC would open up pathways for ether (ETHUSD) exchange-traded funds to engage in "staking," a process where users can earn cryptocurrency as a reward for using existing crypto holdings to verify the accuracy of transactions on an underlying blockchain networks. Approvals of ETFs that invest in cryptocurrencies smaller than bitcoin and ether were also on their wish lists.

-Frances Yue

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April 29, 2025 15:39 ET (19:39 GMT)

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