You probably think that cryptocurrencies are falling only because of inflation, new laws or hacks. But it's not. The other day, something absurd happened, but absolutely real: due to a public quarrel between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, the crypto market literally collapsed, and traders lost almost a billion dollars in just a few hours.
It all started with the fact that Trump began to praise his bill, and Musk decided to participate in the discussion, but, as usual, did not limit himself to one remark. He accused Trump of ingratitude and even casually mentioned the Epstein case. Trump's response didn't take long either: he called Musk "crazy" and promised to review all his companies' contracts with the government. The verbal exchange moved from Twitter (now X) and Truth Social to the headlines of all major media outlets.
But while social media was enjoying the show, the markets began to sink. Tesla shares fell by 14%, and this was the first domino. The entire crypto market followed: Bitcoin dropped below $101,000, Ethereum fell by 7%, and Dogecoin (which used to fly up after Musk's tweets) collapsed by almost 10%. Almost a billion dollars in leveraged positions were liquidated, and most of these losses fell on those who bet on growth.
Bybit and Binance suffered the biggest losses, with Bybit alone having $354 million liquidated. Altcoins and meme tokens such as Solana, PEPE, and DOGE lost more than the rest. It was especially painful for those who kept DOGE — as if Musk's tweets were the only thing keeping him afloat.
Glassnode and other analysts noted that some of the long-term holders started taking profits even before this crisis. But this conflict increased the outflow of investments — $ 278 million was withdrawn from the bitcoin ETF. Even MicroStrategy, known for its large purchases of BTC, remained on the sidelines. Fear in the market was growing — the greed and fear index went into the red zone.
And so we are faced with the question: to what extent does the cryptocurrency market depend not on technology or economics, but on the emotions and ambitions of influential people?
What do you think: Was this the bottom, or just the beginning of an era where political squabbles are stronger than any charts and fundamental data?
