Bitcoin trading remained volatile on Thursday, rising to around $67,000 after briefly falling near $65,900 as traders weighed a new message from US President Donald Trump, who claims the country’s trade deficit has been cut by 78% thanks to tariffs and could turn positive later this year.
“The United States trade deficit has been reduced by 78% due to the tariffs being levied on other companies and countries,” Trump said in a Truth Social post late Wednesday. “Ot will enter positive territory during this year, for the first time in many decades.”
The claim means less to crypto because of the math of a single post and more because it pulls the market back to a familiar pressure point.
Tariffs can act as a tax on imports, which can raise prices in the real economy and complicate the course of interest rates. When markets start pricing in “rates higher for longer,” the dollar tends to get stuck and risk assets tend to run out of oxygen.
Bitcoin has spent the last two weeks acting like a macro proxy again, reacting to changes in liquidity and interest rate expectations rather than any crypto-specific catalyst.
There is also a real data backdrop that makes trading a live topic. In early January, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply to about $29.4 billion, the lowest since 2009, as analysts pointed to a drop in imports, a jump in exports and the effects of tariff threats.
But economists also noted that much of the swing came from non-monetary gold flows, which can make month-to-month figures look cleaner than the underlying trend.
If the tariff story hardens to a stronger dollar and tighter economic conditions, rallies may struggle to hold. If it fades into political noise, crypto goes back to watching flows, utilization and whether buyers can regain lost levels.
