By Alun John and Amanda Cooper
LONDON (Reuters) -Bitcoin hit its lowest in over three months on Tuesday, as nerves in markets over U.S. tariffs reinforced the blow to crypto investor confidence from last week’s $1.5 billion hack of ether from the Bybit exchange.
Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value, broke below $90,000 to its lowest since November 18, falling by as much as 7.5% at one point. It was last down 5% on the day at $89,314.
Global investors have been jittery of late on signs the so-called exceptionalism of the U.S. economy might be fading, while President Donald Trump prepares to impose tariffs.
Trump indicated on Monday his plans to slap a 25% levy on imports from Canada and Mexico from early March remain on schedule, and in a sign of the unease, safe-haven U.S. Treasury prices have rallied sharply, sending yields to two-month lows.
“The macroeconomic situation has been the main reason for the price decline in the last few hours,” said Marcel Heinrichsmeier, crypto assets analyst at DZ Bank.
“The continued tariff announcements and the general protectionist stance of the Trump administration once again led to uncertainty and a risk-off move, fuelling fears of a resurgence of trade wars and inflation.”
Though, he added, “The Bybit hack and the memecoin turmoil of the past few weeks have contributed to a generally worse mood in the crypto market than at the beginning of the year.”
While bitcoin has lost nearly 8% in value in the last week, smaller altcoins have been hit even harder. Memecoin dogecoin and the tokens for the solana and cardano networks have all dropped around 20%, according to CoinGecko.
DELAYED REACTION
Dubai-headquartered Bybit, the world’s second-largest exchange behind Binance, said last week hackers had stolen digital tokens worth around $1.5 billion.
Blockchain research firm Elliptic said the hack was more than double the last-biggest crypto heist and “is almost certainly the single largest known theft of any kind in all time.”
Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, was down 9.5% at $2,386, around its lowest since October.
Joseph Edwards, head of research at Enigma Securities, said Tuesday’s selloff seemed to be “a bit of a delayed reaction from the Bybit hack.”
“Markets held up peculiarly well in response to what was expected to be a significant destabilising event (as any major hack tends to), but there tends to be a price to be paid further down the line when that happens.”
