The leading cryptocurrency went within striking distance of $119K early Friday morning. Meanwhile, Trump’s saber-rattling left stocks floundering.
Marches Towards $120K While Equities Struggle
U.S. President Donald Trump upped the ante on Thursday evening, issuing a sternly worded tariff letter to Canada declaring a 35% tax on all Canadian goods entering the U.S. Stock markets retreated on the news Friday morning, with the S&P, #Nasdaq , and Dow all down 0.33%, 0.08%, 0.76% at the time of writing. Equities stood in sharp contrast to bitcoin ( BTC) which soared into uncharted territory, peaking at $118,856.47 before simmering down to $117K later in the day.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who won the country’s top job on a so-called “elbows up” campaign where he promised to “stand up to Donald Trump,” has made no progress on trade negotiations thus far. The phrase “elbows up” is an ice hockey reference used when players raise their elbows to indicate a willingness to defend themselves or physically engage their opponents. Hockey is Canada’s national sport.
But once Carney won the election, he went from elbows up to what CNN described as the “Trump Whisperer.” Carney fawned on the president, praising his leadership, all while Trump toyed with the idea of annexing Canada when the prime minister visited the White House. Naturally, when Trump suddenly slapped Carney with a 35% tax last night, on top of existing tariffs, Wall Street reacted, but bitcoin didn’t
“Starting August 1, 2025, we will charge Canada a tariff of 35% on Canadian products sent to the United States, separate from all Sectoral Tariffs,” Trump wrote. “If for any reason you decide to raise your Tariffs, then, whatever the number you choose to raise them by, will be added onto the 35% that we charge.”
Overview of Market Metrics
As of this writing, bitcoin has been trading as low as $113,077.17 and topped $118,856.47 over the past 24 hours. The digital asset’s price on Coinmarketcap was $117,481.31 at the time of reporting. The quoted price represents a 3.58% jump since yesterday and a much more significant 8.94% increase over the past week.
Trading volume since Thursday afternoon nearly doubled, jumping 86.52% to $124.87 billion on Friday. Bitcoin’s market capitalization rose 3.61% and was roughly $2.33 trillion at the time of reporting. Interestingly, BTC dominance tumbled 0.56% to 64.34%, an indication that several altcoins rose higher than bitcoin and ate into its share of the broader crypto market.
Total value of BTC futures contracts edged up 0.84% to $84.23 billion in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin liquidations have remained elevated since yesterday and Coinglass currently has them at $589.33 million. Today, much like Thursday, short sellers were responsible for almost all liquidations, with bears losing $554.84 million. Long positions had a much smaller but non-trivial $34.49 million liquidated.