The dominant cryptocurrency tumbled all the way to $74K before reclaiming $78K around midday Monday.

BTC Price Seesaws as Macro Uncertainty Intensifies

President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policies continued to wreak havoc on markets, sending bitcoin to its lowest levels since early November 2024, although altcoins tumbled lower, giving BTC an edge in market capitalization dominance.

Overview of Market Metrics

Bitcoin nosedived to $74K before climbing back above $78K on Monday. The asset is still down 4% over the past 24 hours at $78,385.02, at the time of reporting, according to data from Coinmarketcap. The leading cryptocurrency has now fallen 6% over the past seven days, trading within a volatile range of $74,436.68 to $81,119.06.

The market drop comes amid a sharp rise in trading volume, which climbed to $100.29 billion, a staggering 582.44% increase compared to the previous day. The spike was likely driven by a combination of the usual post-weekend surge and the trading frenzy sparked by Trump’s tariff announcement last week.

Bitcoin’s total market capitalization fell by 4.20% to $1.55 trillion, while its dominance in the overall crypto market rose slightly to 63.41%, reflecting that altcoins have taken even heavier losses than BTC in the latest downturn.

Coinglass data showed that total bitcoin futures open interest dropped by 4.84% to $50.72 billion, indicating a significant reduction in leveraged bets. Liquidation data revealed $9.22 million was wiped out in the past day, with $7.07 million in long positions and $2.15 million in shorts, as some bulls were clearly caught offside by the market’s move lower.

U.S. Federal Reserve Holds Closed Board Meeting After Trump Post

Early Monday, Trump called for an interest rate cut in a post on Truth Social. He lambasted the U.S. Federal Reserve, calling it “slow-moving” and justified the lowering of rates by claiming the economy wasn’t experiencing inflation.

“The slow-moving Fed should cut rates,” Trump wrote. “There is no inflation.”

All this came after the Fed previously announced a closed board meeting scheduled on Monday at 11:30am EST to “discuss discount rates.”

Experts predict an emergency rate cut or a lowering of rates later this year, as Trump called for. Subdued rates will likely mean a price boost for risk assets such as bitcoin, although the current tariff situation could interfere with typical market dynamics.

Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, continues to be bullish on BTC, maintaining his prior position that investors will still flock to the cryptocurrency as a safe-haven from the negative effects that tariffs will have on traditional assets such as the U.S. dollar.

“There is a lot of noise at the moment, but … I think bitcoin will become a hedge against tariff risks this time around,” Kendrick explained. “U.S. isolationism is akin to increased risks of holding fiat, which will ultimately benefit bitcoin.”