Remember that $BTC dump right after Trump announced the tariffs? That wasn’t random.
Here’s the part most people miss: tariffs don’t hit “foreign countries” first — they hit home.
Multiple studies, including work from the Kiel Institute, show roughly 96% of tariff costs are paid by U.S. consumers and businesses, not exporters abroad.
Tariffs behave like a quiet domestic tax:
• Imports get more expensive
• Companies pass costs to consumers or shrink margins
• Foreign exporters don’t slash prices — they redirect supply elsewhere
The result?
Nearly $200B in tariff revenue was paid by the U.S. economy itself, not by the intended external targets.
So when markets sold off, they were pricing in slower growth, higher costs, and tighter financial conditions — all negative for risk assets in the short term, including BTC.
Is Trump a genius? Strategically, tariffs work as leverage and threat.
Are people naïve? Economically, many confuse who pays with who is pressured.
Tariffs move politics.
Markets care about math.
