President Trump has a habit of moving markets with his words, and he appears to have done that yet again Wednesday, prompting large swings across both crypto and stock markets—with the daily volatility generating over $1 billion worth of crypto liquidations in the process.
Bitcoin recently rebounded above $90,000 again after falling to nearly $87,000 just hours earlier, with the rebound coming after Trump said in Davos that he would no longer issue new tariffs against European countries after meeting with the head of NATO. The price of Bitcoin has since settled to $89,574, as of this writing.
“Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic region,” Trump wrote on his own Truth Social platform.
“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO nations," he added. "Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st.”
Markets responded positively to the news following declines on Tuesday, with the S&P 500, Nasdaq, and Dow all up roughly 1.5% on the day, as of this writing. And other top crypto assets have similarly bounced back into the green, with Ethereum vaulting back above $3,000 and XRP showing a more than 3% rise to $1.96.
But Wednesday's swings have punished investors betting on the future price of top crypto assets, yielding more than $1 billion in liquidations over the past 24 hours, per data from CoinGlass.
Long positions, or bets that an asset's price will rise, have taken the brunt of the impact with $672 million worth of positions liquidated, with shorts making up a further $335 million. Bitcoin makes up the bulk of the losses with $426 million, with Ethereum following behind with $366 million worth of positions impacted.
Traders on Myriad, a prediction market operated by Decrypt's parent company Dastan, have swung in favor of President Trump making a formal offer to acquire Greenland before July, giving it a 56% chance as of this writing. Those odds have surged by nearly 14% over the last day.