Trump Defies Supreme Court, Hikes Global Tariffs to 15% — Bitcoin Slides to $68K
The Supreme Court told him no. He did it anyway. And crypto felt it immediately.
On Saturday afternoon, President Trump announced he is raising the global tariff rate from 10% to 15%, effective immediately — just one day after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled his earlier tariff actions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unconstitutional.
Trump called the court decision "anti-American" on Truth Social and declared the new tariffs would stand while his administration figures out "legally permissible" alternatives over the coming months. Translation: he is daring the courts to stop him again.
The Market Reaction
Bitcoin initially popped about 0.5% on the news — a knee-jerk "buy the chaos" move we have seen before — before giving it all back and then some. BTC dropped nearly 1%, settling around $68,000 at press time. Ether followed suit, slipping 0.45% to $1,980.
This is not a massive crash. But the direction matters more than the magnitude right now. Bitcoin has been grinding in a $65,000–$70,000 range for weeks, and every macro shock seems to push it toward the lower end of that band rather than breaking it higher.
The Constitutional Crisis Nobody Is Pricing In
Here is what most crypto commentary is missing: this is not just a tariff story. This is a sitting president openly defying the Supreme Court. The last time something like this happened is hard to find a clean parallel in modern American history.
The immediate economic impact of a 5% tariff increase is real but manageable. The institutional uncertainty of a president who treats Supreme Court rulings as suggestions? That is a different beast entirely. If you are a foreign investor wondering whether to park capital in U.S. assets — including bitcoin ETFs — the rule-of-law question just got a lot more complicated.
The Bear Market Bottom Signal
Zooming out, the timing of this tariff escalation lands in what K33 Research is calling a potential cyclical trough for bitcoin. Their regime model — which tracks derivatives data, ETF flows, technical indicators, and macro signals — shows conditions that "closely resemble late September and mid November 2022," according to head of research Vetle Lunde.
For context, those 2022 periods came right before extended consolidation phases that eventually gave way to the next bull run. The parallels are striking:
- Spot volumes have collapsed 59% week-over-week
- Perpetual futures open interest hit a four-month low
- Funding rates are negative across the board
- The Crypto Fear and Greed Index hit an all-time low of 5 last week
That level of fear is historically where bottoms form. But "historically" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in a market facing an unprecedented constitutional showdown over trade policy.
Meanwhile, Google Searches for "Bitcoin to Zero" Just Spiked
In a delicious bit of contrarian data, U.S. Google searches for "bitcoin to zero" hit an all-time high this month. Similar spikes in 2021 and 2022 coincided with local bottoms. Retail capitulation is often the last ingredient before a reversal.
But here is the nuance: the bitcoin user base is dramatically larger now than in previous cycles. A Google Trends spike on a 0-to-100 relative scale does not mean the same thing when the denominator has changed. It signals elevated anxiety, not a guaranteed bottom.
What Actually Matters Next
The tariff story is not done. Trump explicitly said more measures are coming "in the next short number of months." That means every few weeks, we can expect another headline that rattles risk assets. The question is whether crypto traders have already priced in maximum chaos — or whether the constitutional standoff still has room to escalate.
Our read: the $65,000 level is the line in the sand. If bitcoin holds it through this tariff escalation and whatever legal challenges follow, the bear case gets significantly weaker. If it breaks, the next support zone does not show up until $58,000–$60,000.
For long-term holders, K33 framework suggests this is an accumulation zone — but one that requires patience. The 2022 analog did not resolve in days or weeks. It took months of boring, sideways action before the next move higher.
The signal in the noise right now? Maximum fear, declining volumes, a president who just escalated a constitutional crisis, and a market that has already been beaten down 50% from its highs. History says this is where you want to be paying attention.
Not financial advice. DYOR.
