Tariff fears shake crypto as bitcoin falls below crucial support

Bitcoin (BTC $90,516.70) and the broader cryptocurrency market slid on Monday after reports surfaced that the European Union is preparing €93 billion ($110 billion) in retaliatory tariffs following U.S. President Donald Trump’s Greenland-related threats.

The tariff concerns weighed on European equities and U.S. futures, while safe-haven assets such as gold and silver surged to record highs. Bitcoin, however, did not follow suit, trading near $93,000 after dropping roughly 2.5% since 23:00 UTC on Sunday.

Altcoins delivered a mixed performance. The altcoin-heavy CoinDesk 80 Index (CD80) fell 4.64% over the past 24 hours but was down just 0.93% since midnight, outperforming the bitcoin-dominated CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), which declined 2.5%.

Bitcoin has slipped back below the $94,500 support level following a brief breakout last Wednesday, raising the risk of a return to the $85,000–$94,500 trading range that has persisted since mid-November.

Derivatives and Market Positioning

The pullback hit leveraged long positions hard, triggering nearly $800 million in liquidations over 24 hours. Total notional open interest (OI) in crypto futures declined by more than 2% to $138.14 billion. Bitcoin OI rose slightly by 0.65% over the same period, while ether’s OI remained flat. Other major tokens, including SOL, XRP, ADA, DOGE, SUI, and LTC, saw OI declines of 8%-13%, signaling broad capital outflows and heightened risk aversion.

Despite the selloff, 30-day implied volatility for BTC and ETH remained largely unchanged, suggesting traders are not anticipating extreme near-term swings. The volatility skew on Deribit-listed BTC calls and puts remains negative across time frames, indicating continued downside caution—a trend mirrored in ether. Block flows for BTC have been balanced, with traders engaging in both put and call spreads.

Altcoin Highlights

Lighter’s LIT token fell 10% since Sunday, coinciding with HyperLiquid reclaiming the top spot among derivatives exchanges by trading volume as interest in Lighter waned following its December airdrop.

The broader altcoin market was mixed overnight. Monero (XMR $534.75) bucked the trend, climbing more than 13%, as privacy coins continued to outperform. In contrast, DeFi tokens such as ETHFI, ENA, and JUP posted double-digit losses, while layer-1 networks like APT and SUI fell roughly 10%. Medium-cap tokens underperformed the major cryptocurrencies, reflecting lingering liquidity constraints following October’s liquidation cascade. Solana (SOL $127.70) and Cardano (ADA $0.3582) also fell roughly 6%.

Overall, the tariff-driven selloff triggered $815 million in liquidations, with $231 million attributed to bitcoin and the remainder impacting altcoins, according to CoinGlass.