‘It Always Feels Bleak’: Retail Traders Reel After Crypto’s Trump-Fueled Rise and Fall

For the most ardent believers in cryptocurrency, the unthinkable is now happening. Despite unwavering support from the world’s most powerful banks, most powerful investors, and even most powerful president on the planet, the dark signs of another “crypto winter” are everywhere.

Bitcoin was supposed to have outgrown its volatile youth. But then it fell 13% on Thursday, suffering its most dramatic daily plunge since Nov. 2022, when Joe Biden was the US president and Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX was in freefall. Even as it bounced back on Friday, the shock and disappointment lingered. Two years of ETF hype was meant to mainstream crypto. Instead, billions have been pulled out in recent months. And Donald Trump promised to make the US “the crypto capital of the world.” This week, supporters and skeptics alike got crushed.