The crypto market slumped after President Donald Trump threatened to choke China with a “massive increase of Tariffs” in a Truth Social post on Oct. 10.

\\"Ultimately, though potentially painful, it will be a very good thing, in the end, for the U.S.A.\\"

Bitcoin immediately fell more than 1% in an hour to around $118,850 before it recovered to trade at $119,139.85.

Ethereum fell as much as 1.5% in an hour to $4,123.31 at press time. XRP slipped 0.41% in an hour to $2.74.

Related: What is Crypto? Cryptocurrency explained

The total crypto market cap stood at $4.03 trillion at the time of writing, down more than 2% in a day.

Trump began an escalation of the global tariff war first in early April on the so-called \\"Liberation Day\\" on Apr. 2. It soon turned out that Trump's main target was China which can threaten the U.S. hegemony due to its rapidly rising economic and geopolitical profile.

Hardly any countries escaped the tariff hikes, with both friends and foes being equal targets of Trump's aggressive policy.

The crypto market also faced the burnt of the Trump tariffs. The total market cap declined from $2.74 trillion on Apr. 2 to $2.42 trillion on Apr. 8.

When Trump took a drastic decision on Apr. 9 to freeze tariff hikes on most countries for 90 days except China, the market began recovering.

Since then, the crypto market has become comparatively resilient to the shocks caused by Trump's unexpected tariff decisions.

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In his latest outburst, Trump threatened to slap additional tariffs on the imports of Chinese products to the U.S. in apparent retaliation for China's new export controls on rare earth minerals.

“There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration.\\"

Not only that, he also threatened to cancel his upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Oct 10, 2025, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.