Bitcoin Loses 18% This Week on Global Economic Woes: Your Weekly Crypto Recap

It has been one hell of a week and I don’t mean that figuratively. The cryptocurrency markets shed almost half a trillion dollar as Bitcoin’s price tumbled below $80,000 and the majority of altcoins had it even worse.

First things first, Bitcoin is down by around 18% in the past seven days – a terrible performance that we hadn’t seen in a while. In essence, the cryptocurrency erased all of the gains that were made following Donald Trump’s presidential election and we are pretty much back to the levels before November 2024.

But why did this happen? Well, the Trump recently announced plans to impose hefty 25% tariffs on everything imported from the European Union and said that the economic alliance of the Old Continent has been done to hurt the US in the first place. Naturally, all markets reacted as fears of rampant inflation skyrocketed. Although the tariffs are yet to be finalized, in following interviews and meetings, Trump stood firm, only suggesting that the UK could be the one country to avoid them, but there’s no clarity on that yet.

Elsewhere, the tensions between the US and Ukraine were also increasing throughout the week, but today – Friday – both countries are expected to sign an agreement, which would outline their future trade arrangements and potential support against the Russian invasion in Ukraine. President Volodimir Zelensky is expected in Washington later today.

None of these news had a positive impact on the altcoin markets as well, which suffered more than Bitcoin or was at least on par with it, as evident from its dominance – the metric which tracks its share relative to that of the rest of the market.

As you can see in the heatmap below, everything is trading in the red and charting massive losses upwards of 20%. This has taken its toll on the market sentiment, which is currently at levels last seen in June 2022 or, in other words – extremely fearful.

It’s interesting to see how things will pan out in the coming week and whether or not the correction will finally be over.

Market Data

Screenshot 2025-02-28 at 16.54.53 — Source: Quantify Crypto

Market Cap: $2.831T | 24H Vol: $213B | BTC Dominance: 57.5%

BTC: $82,131 (-17.2%) | ETH: $2,170 (-23.3%) | XRP: $2.11 (-21.8%)

This Week’s Crypto Headlines You Can’t Miss

Bitcoin Dumps Below $80K as Trade War Tensions Escalate. The total cryptocurrency market cap lost around 18% amid ongoing trade war tensions between the US and the European Union following the most recent comments from President Donald Trump.

Bitcoin Sentiment Hits 2022 Lows as Fear & Greed Index Falls to 10. It appears that the broader cryptocurrency market sentiment has dropped to levels last seen in 2022. This could be a sign of capitulation, staging the grounds for a potential recovery.

Bitcoin ETFs Record Over $3.6B in Outflows in the Past 2 Weeks. In case it hasn’t been clear, the situation with Bitcoin markets hasn’t exactly been pretty throughout the past couple of weeks. US-based ETFs recorded a massive $3.6B worth of outflows for the period.

FBI Links $1.5 Billion Bybit Hack to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has officially attributed the recent $1.5 billion cyberattack on cryptocurrency exchange Bybit to North Korea’s state-sponsored Lazarus Group.

SEC Closes Investigation Into Gemini, Winklevoss Seeks Reimbursement. The co-founder of Gemini, Cameron Winklevoss, took to social media to announce that the US Securities and Exchange Commission has officially closed its investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange.

Santiment: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Solana See Widespread FUD. The cryptocurrency market is facing substantial fear, uncertainty, and doubt, especially around several top assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and Solana.