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Following a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court declaring the measure unlawful, President Donald Trump abruptly scrapped existing reciprocal tariffs, only to immediately impose an additional 10% temporary tariff on imports targeting the entire world, leaving the cryptocurrency market—including Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP (Ripple)—mired in a heavy wait-and-see mode.
According to investment outlet FXStreet on February 21 (local time), in the aftermath of President Trump’s hardline follow-up measures to the Supreme Court’s emergency decision nullifying the tariffs, Bitcoin has been moving sluggishly below the key resistance level of $68,000 during intraday trading. Earlier, the Supreme Court upheld lower court rulings, determining that the reciprocal tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), as well as the so-called 25% “fentanyl tariffs” levied on Mexico, Canada, and China, were unlawful.
In response, President Trump signed an executive order on the White House website terminating the collection of those tariffs, officially abolishing the previously differentiated duties imposed on countries around the world. However, expectations for an estimated $175 billion in tariff refunds, according to Penn Wharton estimates, were short-lived. At a press conference, he announced an additional 10% temporary tariff on all exports to the United States worldwide to replace the tariffs deemed illegal by the Supreme Court. The new tariff will take effect immediately at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on the 24th.
Markets that had anticipated reduced uncertainty following the Supreme Court ruling saw investor sentiment quickly freeze with news of the immediately effective 10% global tariff. Over the past 24 hours, Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), and XRP posted only marginal gains of around 1%, while other top altcoins have remained stuck in a horizontal trading range.
The cryptocurrency market has been weighed down by a prolonged bearish trend in recent months, with Bitcoin having fallen as much as 45% from its peak. Analysts at K33 noted that the leading cryptocurrency may have already reached or approached a bottom, but cautioned that it will likely need to undergo an extended consolidation phase.
Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, has also emphasized that broader macroeconomic improvements are essential for the crypto market to enter a full-fledged recovery rally. Amid roller-coaster-like policy uncertainty, as the abolition of previous tariffs intersects with the implementation of new temporary duties, the cautious and constrained trading environment in the crypto market is expected to persist for the time being.
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