New York, Jan 19, 2026, 12:16 EST — Market closed.
Bitcoin dropped roughly 2% to $93,297 on Monday, dipping as low as $92,245 amid early-week risk-off moves. The largest cryptocurrency still stayed well below its intraday peak of $95,470.
The move followed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Britain unless the U.S. gets the green light to buy Greenland. Trump warned the tariff would kick in at 10% on Feb. 1 and jump to 25% come June 1 if no agreement is reached.
U.S. stock markets are closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, meaning fewer major venues are available for hedging or taking on risk before Tuesday’s reopening. As a result, crypto price swings may appear more dramatic than usual.
During Asian trading, bitcoin dipped as much as 3.6%, slipping under $92,000 before recovering slightly. Ether slid 4.9%, and Solana tumbled 8.6%. Meanwhile, CoinGecko data revealed the crypto market lost roughly $100 billion in value.
Some of the selling appeared automatic. Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Kronos Research, told CryptoSlate that geopolitical headlines struck an “already fragile crypto market,” pushing leveraged positions to unwind and losses to spiral. CryptoSlate
U.S.-listed spot bitcoin ETFs—funds that actually hold bitcoin—saw solid inflows ahead of the holiday. According to data from Farside Investors, net inflows hit about $1.42 billion in the week ending Jan. 16. BlackRock’s IBIT accounted for roughly $1.03 billion of that total.
Outside crypto, a risk-off mood sent funds flowing into traditional safe havens. Gold and silver soared to record highs. Linh Tran, senior market analyst at XS.com, noted that markets “react swiftly” by flocking to safe-haven assets when policy risks rise. On Friday, Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said the central bank should be ready to cut rates again if the job market weakens. Investors are now eyeing the Fed’s Jan. 27-28 meeting. Reuters
Europe is gearing up to respond. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil declared, “We will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed.” French Finance Minister Roland Lescure labeled the tactic unacceptable as EU leaders consider their next moves ahead of Thursday’s emergency summit in Brussels. Reuters
Crypto often rebounds sharply once the headlines fade. If Washington shows openness to dialogue or Europe hints at easing up, the pressure could ease. But if tariffs actually ramp up, bitcoin will likely keep behaving like a high-beta risk play.
U.S. markets reopen Tuesday, and traders will be watching to see if equity volatility spills into crypto and if ETF flows remain supportive. After tariff updates, all eyes turn to the Fed’s decision on Jan. 27-28 as the next big catalyst.
