On April 7, 2025, media outlets began to refer to the fall of the cryptocurrency market as being on Crypto Black Monday. The shockwaves from these aggressive trade policies leading up to this sharp decline sent by the Trump administration rippled through the global financial markets. Digital assets fell along with the usual markets, and investors watched nervously as the most turbulent trading day of the year took place.

Key-Takeaways:

• On April 7, 2025, Trump’s Liberation Day trade tariffs triggered the Crypto Black Monday, resulting in Bitcoin dropping 7.7% and other cryptocurrencies up to 20%.
• While this crash was bad, it wasn’t as bad as the previous crypto crash, namely Black Thursday in 2020, when Bitcoin crashed 50%.
• Global stock markets had mixed reactions — Hong Kong closed sharply lower by 13%, down 27 points — while U.S. markets had minor losses with only less than 1% and Brazil posted double-digit losses.
• Crypto markets have a tendency to recover quite quickly, even historically, but whether this crash will play in the geopolitical manner will affect how quickly we can recover.

Liberation Day Trade War

The turmoil in the market started on April 2nd, the day the Trump administration braced a wide variety of tariffs against many countries on the occasion of ‘Liberation Day.’ Almost immediately these protectionist measures chilled investor confidence around the globe. That jet people with very clear blue eyes, who are out there climbing on walls. Tensions between the United States and other trading partners sparked markets to begin trembling. Uncertainty among investors was exacerbated because the administration was sticking to those policies despite international backlash.

During the Black Monday, Bitcoin fell around 7.7% in a 24-hour range crash. During this period, other cryptocurrencies also suffered great losses. Falling around 20%, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP all fell. But BNB fell around 9%. Prices rebounded between 3-5% in the market after the initial shock, which slightly recovered the market. During this chaotic trading day, the leveraged crypto positions liquidated totaled about $600 million.

Stock markets in various regions responded differently to cryptocurrencies while they were struggling. The U.S. stock market opened down around 3%, but throughout the day recovered. Nevertheless, US markets were shut Friday with minimal losses below 1%, with high volatility. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index plummeted 13%, its worst single-day performance since it was transferred from British to Chinese control in 1997. After targeting 30% tariffs, the South African markets fell by 9% and Japanese markets closed down 7.9%.

Not the worst Crypto Black Monday the landscape had

If the headlines keep emphasizing how historical the crypto crash has been, this was surprisingly not a terribly unusual occurrence historically. Nevertheless, March 12, 2020, the day the market tanked and became a market crash due to COVID-19, is the darkest day the cryptocurrency market has seen to date. The plunge of Bitcoin by roughly 50% that day was on what’s known as “Black Thursday,” the day the World Health Organization announced the declaration of a pandemic. Additionally, crypto downfalls such as 2013, Mt. Gox, and 2022’s FTX can be cited as other significant falling crashes.

Recovery Patterns From Previous Crashes

Even historical data provides you with some idea of potential recovery timelines. Bitcoin stripped back half its cost within 24 hours after the March 2020 crash. Late April saw the recovery of the market aided by government stimulus payments. Soon after the April 2013 Mt. Gox incident, Bitcoin swiftly recovered and returned to its previous levels within weeks. But in the months following the November 2022 FTX collapse to recover fully, it had to rely on large purchases from prominent investors.

Countries are exchanging threats, and market analysts think that the current uncertainty will stay until countries stop invoking threats. However, per Michael van de Poppe of MN Consultancy, there could be a bit of an extended period of adjustment from six to twelve months that the tariffs could exist. Bitcoin has historically been quite resilient in economic turmoil, bouncing back when most other markets were weak. Crypto-specific factors as well as broader geographical developments need to be monitored by the investors.

It would be foolhardy to think that international tensions will not simmer for the immediate future. The recovery timing will also depend on how fast the biggest market players remodel the conditions of such a new trade landscape. Seeing as how cryptocurrencies have crashed before by the pattern they did at that time, they can actually still recover pretty quickly. Yet, this is not the same sort of situation that has been seen before, as this geopolitical problem has nothing to do with industry-specific issues.

Conclusion: Crypto Black Monday

Markets really have further to digest, as far as the trade war is concerned. This geopolitical tension will show the maturing relationship of the cryptocurrency market with traditional finance. In the aftermath of what some are calling a Crypto Black Monday, only time will reveal if crypto’s recovery mode is used like the rest or imparts new ways of navigating these stormy waters.