Bitcoin drops over 6% as traders take profits after Trump’s executive order

The original cryptocurrency slid more than 6.5% to below $98,000 on Monday morning in Europe before paring some losses. Smaller tokens nursed even steeper declines. Solana and XRP, which have rallied since Trump’s victory, fell around 11% and 14%, respectively. Second-ranked token ether at one point shed more than 8%.

The slump comes after the President on Friday ordered the creation of a working group to advise the White House on crypto policy in a long-awaited executive action. The group is tasked with proposing a regulatory framework for digital assets in the US within six months, while evaluating the creation of a crypto stockpile. The order stopped short of confirming that the US would establish a Bitcoin reserve — something Trump had vowed to do on the campaign trail.

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“Even though the market got 90% of what it wanted with the executive orders, it evidently was mostly priced in,” said Sean McNulty, head of APAC derivatives at FalconX. Anything short of a Bitcoin reserve “that immediately started buying BTC was going to disappoint,” he added.

The digital-asset market took the order largely in its stride on Jan. 24, posting modest gains in its aftermath. Bitcoin is up more than 50% since Trump’s election victory in early November. Trump used to be a crypto skeptic but had a change of heart on during campaigning, in part as the industry ramped up its involvement in the election through sizable political donations. He has pledged to make the US the world’s crypto capital and in December named venture capitalist David Sacks as artificial intelligence and crypto czar.

The Republican’s embrace of the sector was on full display in the days leading up to his inauguration on Jan. 20, when he and his wife Melania launched memecoins — highly volatile tokens with questionable intrinsic value.

“After a string of bullish news — like pro-crypto regulatory appointments, new ETF product filings, and executive orders — the market seems to be catching its breath,” said Justin d’Anethan, head of sales at Liquifi, a token launch advisory firm.

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Asian stocks rose in early trade on Monday even as trade war fears resurfaced after Trump ordered punitive sanctions on Colombia for rejecting US deportation flights over human rights issues. US stock index futures tumbled amid concerns that an artificial intelligence model from China’s DeepSeek may disrupt the technology world — fears that have “cascaded across futures and into digital assets,” according to Jonathan Yark, senior quant trader at market maker Acheron Trading.

Bitcoin was trading at $99,227 as of 7:54 a.m. in London on Monday.