Bitcoin trading remained volatile on Thursday, rising to around $67,000 after briefly falling near $65,900, as traders weighed a new message from US President Donald Trump claiming that the nation’s trade deficit has been reduced by 78% thanks to tariffs and could turn positive later this year.
“The US trade deficit has been reduced by 78% due to tariffs being charged to other companies and countries,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Wednesday night. “Ot will enter positive territory this year for the first time in many decades.”
The claim is less important for cryptocurrencies because of the math in any post and more because it brings the market back to a familiar pressure point.
Tariffs can act as a tax on imports, which can raise prices in the real economy and complicate the path for interest rates. When markets begin to value “higher rates for longer,” the dollar tends to strengthen and risk assets tend to lose oxygen.
Bitcoin has spent the last two weeks again operating as a macro proxy, reacting to changes in liquidity and rate expectations rather than any specific crypto catalyst.
There is also a backdrop of real data that makes the trade topical. In early January, the US trade deficit shrank sharply to around $29.4 billion, the lowest level since 2009, with analysts pointing to a drop in imports, a rise in exports and the knock-on effects of tariff threats.
But economists also noted that a large part of the swing came from non-monetary gold flows, which may make the monthly figures look cleaner than the underlying trend.
If the tariff story tightens and leads to a stronger dollar and tighter financial conditions, rallies may struggle to sustain. If it fades into the political noise, cryptocurrencies return to watching flows, leverage and whether buyers can regain lost levels.
