Bitcoin slides under $90,000, erasing some of the gains made under Trump
 [February 26, 2025] By
ALAN SUDERMAN
The price of bitcoin fell below $90,000 and other cryptocurrencies saw
large drops Tuesday morning, erasing some of the gains digital assets
have made since President Donald Trump took office on a pro-crypto
agenda.
Bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, was trading at about
$89,000 as the U.S. stock market opened. That’s down from about
$106,000, which was the price around Trump’s inauguration. The decline
in bitcoin and other crypto assets accelerated after a report showed a
bigger-than-expected drop in consumer confidence for this month.
Cryptocurrency is highly volatile, and prices can change rapidly. Even
with Tuesday's drop, bitcoin is still up significantly since Trump won
last year's election. Supporters said the price drops represent a good
investment opportunity.
“Buy the dips!!!” Eric Trump, the president’s son, said on the social
media platform X. He replaced the letter B with the symbol for bitcoin.
It’s been a mixed bag for the cryptocurrency industry in recent weeks.
The president and pro-crypto members of Congress have promised to usher
in a golden age for the industry and pledged quick action to craft
friendly regulations. And in recent weeks, regulators at the Securities
and Exchange Commission have signaled plans to drop enforcement actions
against key industry players, like Coinbase and Robinhood.
But a large hack of a major cryptocurrency exchange -- one of the
biggest thefts of all time -- and a major scandal involving the
president of Argentina and a meme coin have highlighted some of the
vulnerabilities in a relatively still nascent industry.
Last week the Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced it was
a victim of a sophisticated hack that stole about $1.5 billion worth of
digital currency. A number of security researchers believe North Korea,
which authorities have blamed for several other major crypto hacks, was
behind the theft.
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An employee watches an electronic signboard displaying the
prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at the lounge of
Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 21,
2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)
 Argentine President Javier Milei is
facing a corruption probe into his promotion of a meme coin, called
LIBRA, whose price soared then quickly crashed after Milei posted
about it on X. Milei has distanced himself from the meme coin and
denied any wrongdoing.
Meme coins are a highly speculative form of cryptocurrency that are
mostly minted as jokes and have no intrinsic value but can sometimes
soar in price.
One of the crypto developers involved in the LIBRA coin said meme
coins are essentially a rigged game that benefits a small group of
people at the expense of retail investors in a recent interview with
an independent journalist.
That developer, Hayden Davis, also revealed he was involved in the
launch of First Lady Melania Trump’s meme coin just before her
husband took office. The Melania meme coin was trading at about 90
cents on Tuesday, down from more than $13 when it first launched.
The president also helped launch a meme coin just before he took
office that’s seen a similar price trajectory.
Solana, a major cryptocurrency that’s a key player in the meme coin
ecosystem, has seen its price roughly cut in half since Trump’s
inauguration.
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