Trump’s 'Liberation Day' tariffs cost U.S. govt $2B in Bitcoin
The value of Bitcoin held by the U.S. government has declined by $2 billion since Apr. 2, dubbed “Liberation Day” by President Donald Trump when he announced global “reciprocal tariffs.”
As per the on-chain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence , the U.S. government holds 198,012 BTC the value of which stood at $17.24 billion on Apr. 2.
As the king coin’s price declined from $87,106 on Apr. 2 to $76,830.22 on Apr. 8, the value of the U.S. government’s Bitcoin holdings has dipped to $15.21 billion.
In short, the government has seen a loss of nearly 12% in its Bitcoin holdings since “Liberation Day” tariffs.
Note that the U.S. has accumulated Bitcoin through seizures by federal agencies in civil or criminal forfeiture proceedings. On March 6, Trump signed an executive order to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve, capitalizing on these BTC seizures. The same day, Trump’s crypto czar David Sacks claimed the government lost $17 billion due to Bitcoin sales during the previous administration.
The order also mandated the federal agencies to report their crypto holdings to the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent within 30 days, though it didn’t mention a public disclosure of the same.
The government also holds $122 million in USDT and $88 million in Ethereum, among other cryptocurrencies. In total, its crypto holdings are worth $15.6 billion as of Apr. 8.
Meanwhile, the crypto market has seen a loss of nearly 9% in its market cap since Apr. 2. It stood at $2.5 trillion at the time of writing.
Bitcoin was trading at $76,830.22 at press time, as per Kraken's price feeds .