Crypto’s Slide Persists as Trade War Marches On

Cryptocurrency prices continue to drop following record liquidations over the weekend.

The price of bitcoin, the most popular digital asset, fell as much as 2.9% to about $112,500 on Tuesday (Oct. 14) morning in London, Bloomberg News reported, citing its own data. The price of ether dipped more than 5% to $4,000.

According to the report, this drop happened as China instituted new limits on the American units of Hanwha Ocean Co., one of South Korea’s largest shipbuilders, in response to U.S. measures against the Chinese shipping industry.

The downturn began Oct. 10 when President Donald Trump announced plans for 100% tariffs on products from China, leading to record liquidations of around $19 billion in crypto positions.

The report added that while digital asset markets recovered briefly on Monday (Oct. 13), most of the major crypto tokens have begun to decline, with investors withdrawing $756 million from U.S. bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Monday.

“The market now enters a consolidation phase, one defined by renewed caution, selective risk-taking, and a more measured rebuilding of confidence across both spot and derivatives markets,” analytics firm Glassnode said in a note, per Bloomberg.

In other cryptocurrency news, PYMNTS spoke Monday with Mark Troianovski, director and head of product partnerships at Coinbase, about his company’s recent collaboration with Samsung. That partnership is designed to bring Coinbase One, the company’s premium membership program, into the Samsung Wallet app for users in the U.S.

As PYMNTS wrote, this is different from the old model of crypto adoption, in which users needed to download an exchange app, memorize seed phrases and get around the volatility of trading tokens.

“It’s really all about meeting our users where they are,” Troianovski said. “People have come to expect their phones to be a place to store payment credentials, for digital wallets to serve as a kind of financial hub.”

This collaboration, PYMNTS argued, finds crypto “embedding itself in ecosystems people already trust.”

In terms of the reality of the offering, Troianovski described it as a kind of “choose your own adventure in crypto.” Users can send payments in USDC to friends, split bills, delve into the world of decentralized finance, or even “take a loan out against your bitcoin.”

“We actually recently surpassed a billion dollars’ worth of loans originated,” Troianovski said, noting Coinbase’s goal of making crypto holdings more dynamic and less static. “You don’t have to sell your bitcoin to have spending power.”