Bitcoin Steadies Near $60K Under Trump's 100% Tariff Threat

Crypto News

US President Donald Trump warned that any nation taxing American technology firms will face an immediate 100% tariff on all goods shipped to the United States, a threat that rattled risk assets including Bitcoin (BTC), now trading near $60,000. In a Truth Social post, Trump said the levy would supersede existing trade deals, “whether implemented, signed, or not.” The warning targets Digital Services Taxes imposed by several European governments on large US tech companies. By pressuring those capitals to retreat, the measure could ultimately shield the same firms it claims to defend, while reviving the global trade tensions that have repeatedly bled into crypto markets this cycle.

At the center of the dispute sit Digital Services Taxes, or DSTs, levies that tax the revenue technology firms earn from local users rather than their booked profits. France pioneered the model in 2019 with a 3% rate, collecting roughly €700 million, about $797 million, in 2024, almost entirely from large American technology companies. The United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Austria operate similar measures. Because the taxes hit top-line revenue, they bite even when a company reports thin margins locally, a design Washington has long argued unfairly singles out US firms and distorts cross-border competition in digital services.

The confrontation carries a track record. During Trump's first term, the US Trade Representative ruled France's tax discriminatory and readied 25% duties on roughly $1.3 billion of French goods before suspending them in 2021 to allow global negotiations. Those OECD-led talks later stalled, leaving the underlying dispute unresolved and primed to reignite. Canada offers the clearest recent precedent: it rescinded its own 3% digital tax in June 2025 after Trump abruptly cut off trade negotiations, a retreat that demonstrated how quickly the tariff threat can force a policy reversal. That history frames why markets treat the latest warning as more than rhetoric.

If foreign governments pause their levies, the biggest winners would be America's technology leaders. Alphabet (GOOGL), Meta (META), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Microsoft (MSFT) each carry a recurring DST cost that a successful pressure campaign could erase. The equity reaction on June 26 was mixed: Meta climbed toward $555.69 and Microsoft recovered above $370, while Alphabet held near $341.54. Amazon eased to $231.03 after setting a higher intraday high earlier in the session. The split tape suggests investors see credible upside for the platforms but remain wary of the retaliation and broader trade disruption the threat could unleash.

The collateral damage would fall heaviest on European exporters. A blanket 100% tariff would strike automakers, wine producers, and luxury-goods houses hardest, sectors that depend on US consumers for a large share of sales. That asymmetry is the lever: by threatening the goods Europe can least afford to lose access to, Washington raises the cost of maintaining a digital tax that generates comparatively modest revenue. The episode underscores how rapidly trade policy can spill from one arena into another, dragging currencies, equities, and digital assets into the same risk-off move whenever tariff headlines escalate without warning.

For crypto, the read-through is familiar. Past tariff escalations have repeatedly pressured Bitcoin and the broader altcoin complex, as traders and automated AI trading bot strategies cut exposure to volatile assets when macro uncertainty spikes. Bitcoin (BTC) is changing hands near $60,000, well below its all-time high, while Ethereum (ETH) trades around $1,575, both consolidating as the trade headline adds another layer of risk to an already fragile tape. With tariffs able to reshape capital flows and dollar strength overnight, digital assets sit squarely in the transmission path, even though no token is directly named in the policy.

Tying these threads together, the dominant signal is risk aversion radiating from trade policy into every corner of the market. COINOTAG's aggregate data captures the mood precisely: our Fear and Greed Index reads 13 out of 100, deep in Extreme Fear, while Bitcoin dominance has climbed to 70.0% as capital concentrates into the largest asset and retreats from smaller tokens. Total crypto market capitalization stands near $1.72 trillion. Our reading is that the Trump tariff threat functions as a macro accelerant rather than a crypto-specific catalyst, widening the dollar-liquidity uncertainty that historically caps Bitcoin rallies. Until the trade path clarifies, we expect defensive positioning and elevated equity-crypto correlation to persist.