Bitcoin Slides Below $90K as Tariff Rhetoric and Reopened Markets Hit Crypto Equities

Bitcoin’s first session after the MLK Day lull opened with a test of the round-number battleground. BTC briefly undercut $90,000, tagged a low at $89,929, and then stabilized near $90,535, trading in a tight $90,000 to $91,000 band. The move was modest in percent terms—down about 2.5% over 24 hours per CoinGecko—but notable for breadth and liquidity: spot volume climbed 14% to $68.6 billion, per CoinGlass, a typical post-holiday pick-up as institutional desks return.

I’m focused on the $90K handle, not because it is magical, but because it concentrates behavior. Round levels often shape order-book placement, hedging triggers, and narrative—especially when macro noise creeps in. On cue, U.S. equities opened lower (major indices were off more than 1%), while fresh trade-war talk re-entered the tape. President Donald Trump said he intends to fully pursue tariffs on European nations that push back on his effort to take control of Greenland. Market pros read it as another risk-premium layer rather than a shock. As one desk put it, the initial reaction was quiet, but it compounds the rolling uncertainty tariffs have injected over the past year.

Crypto equities showed the reflex. Strategy—fresh off announcing a $2.1 billion Bitcoin purchase—slid more than 6% after the bell; MSTR recently traded near $162.60 after printing a weekly trough below $160. Ethereum treasury player SharpLink Gaming (SBET) dropped 7.8% to $10.14; the firm holds roughly $2.4 billion in ETH, which its CEO recently characterized as permanent capital, and he framed 2025 as the accumulation phase for DATs with 2026 needing to deliver productivity. Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings fell 5.7% to $10.70; late last year it signed a letter of intent with midstream operator MPLX to supply natural gas to its West Texas data centers and expand facilities—a prudent cost and uptime hedge that still can’t fully offset revenue beta when BTC ticks down.

This is where the $90K line matters. It’s a psychological pivot, but it also maps to hedger behavior and forced rebalancing across miners, treasuries, and basis traders. When BTC hovers at a marquee level with rising volume and macro chatter, equities with embedded crypto exposure can experience amplified moves as risk systems tighten and liquidity thins. Several quant teams framed the tape as a compression, not a breakdown; one noted price action looks more like coiling, with $90K needing to act as support or the market risks probing the mid-$80Ks.

A final nuance: crypto’s trading rhythm increasingly syncs with TradFi calendars. Even though exchanges don’t close, institutional participation now shapes when liquidity and volatility show up. That’s why post-holiday sessions tend to reprice both crypto and its proxies in unison with macro headlines.

Near term, the order book around $90K will tell the story. Hold it, and you get a cleaner platform for renewed risk; lose it, and miner and treasury equities likely overreact again before spot finds deeper bids.