In December 2015, Donald Trump called Bitcoin a “scam.” Ten years later, he became the president who has the most unpredictable impact on the crypto market. And while this used to be merely a curiosity, by 2026 it had become a structural problem.

How a Single Statement Moves Billions

The statistics for 2026 speak for themselves. In April, Trump announced the possibility of peace with Iran and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Within 30 minutes, Bitcoin jumped 6.2% - from $70,000 to $75,000.

When Trump urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act in August, Bitcoin rose 11.5% to $71,834, and Ethereum climbed 18.3%. When he remarked that he had become the “big crypto guy,” Bitcoin bounced back by 1.8%. These aren’t just a few percentage points of the market. When Bitcoin moves 6% in half an hour, investors lose or gain hundreds of millions of dollars. And the trigger is a single tweet. In contrast, traditional financial markets react to statements from bankers and central banks in a predictable manner and with some lag. Here, the cryptocurrency market has shown “heightened, rapid sensitivity” to Trump’s statements.

Why has this become a systemic problem right now?

In the past, presidents influenced the crypto market through regulatory bodies - the SEC, the CFTC, and banking agencies. That took time and paperwork. Trump took a different path. He appointed Paul Atkins, a consultant with many years of experience in the crypto industry, as SEC Chair. This isn’t just a personnel decision. It’s a signal: the new administration is crypto-friendly. In August, Trump hosted a White House event with crypto industry leaders, including the founders of Gemini and the co-CEO of Kraken. And on the very same day, he called for the passage of the CLARITY Act.

The level of coordination is surprising. The crypto industry gets the signal, the market reacts, and prices rise.

The Dark Side: Conflicts of Interest

In January 2025, right before his inauguration, Trump launched his own meme coin - $TRUMP. In theory, this was a show of support. In practice, the accumulated profits from crypto and political ventures had reached over $4 billion by early 2026. But the most questionable deal involved Crypto.com.

Crypto.com had been under investigation by the Biden administration for over a year. Financial regulators indicated that enforcement action was likely. Then Trump won the election, and the company was cleared of the investigation. There’s more. In August, Crypto.com announced a partnership with Trump Media, investing approximately $1 billion in assets. Trump Media received a significant stake without making a substantial capital investment. Lawyers and ethics experts call this a case of conflicts of interest that arose during Trump’s second presidency.

A Question with No Clear Answers

Federal ethics rules prohibit conflicts of interest regarding financial assets. A 2022 opinion from the Office of Government Ethics recommends that federal employees recuse themselves from crypto-related matters when there is a potential for profit or loss on their digital assets.


Sources: CNBC, Forbes, CoinDesk, Associated Press, PBS, Reuters, Yahoo Finance