{"id":18548,"date":"2026-01-19T15:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/why-is-bitcoin-and-crypto-down-today-key-drivers-behind-the-move\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T15:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T15:00:18","slug":"why-is-bitcoin-and-crypto-down-today-key-drivers-behind-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/why-is-bitcoin-and-crypto-down-today-key-drivers-behind-the-move\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Bitcoin And Crypto Down Today? Key Drivers Behind The Move"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin slid to $91,920 late Sunday in New York, down 3.8% from roughly $95,500, as a sharp risk-off impulse hit crypto markets and quickly bled into high beta majors. Ether fell as much as 5.3% to $3,177, while XRP and Solana underperformed with drawdowns of 10.4% to $1.847 and 9% to $130, respectively, as leveraged positioning was forced out.<\/p>\n<h2>Why Is Bitcoin And Crypto Down Today?<\/h2>\n<p>The immediate catalyst was a geopolitics-to-trade headline that landed into a weekend liquidity window: President Donald Trump said the US would impose additional 10% tariffs on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands and Finland starting Feb. 1, escalating to 25% on June 1 unless a deal is reached for the US to acquire Greenland.<\/p>\n<p>European officials framed the move as coercive and signaled a coordinated response. Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel called the threat \u201cblackmail,\u201d adding: \u201cIt\u2019s not necessary. It doesn\u2019t help the alliance (NATO).\u201d The targeted countries, many of them NATO allies, issued a stark pushback warning that tariff threats \u201cundermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,\u201d while EU representatives convened emergency talks over potential retaliation. France&#8217;s President Macron threatened EU&#8217;s &#8220;anti-coercion instrument.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">BREAKING: France\u2019s President Macron calls for the EU to activate its &#8220;most potent trade weapon&#8221; against the US after President Trump&#8217;s tariff threat over Greenland.<\/p>\n<p>Macron is now calling for the use of the EU&#8217;s &#8220;anti-coercion instrument.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If used against the US, it would\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/E47Bpe03lK\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/E47Bpe03lK<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Kobeissi Letter (@KobeissiLetter) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KobeissiLetter\/status\/2012875286702899711?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 18, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>For Bitcoin and the entire crypto market, the significance isn\u2019t the tariff math in isolation; it\u2019s the abrupt repricing of global growth and policy risk. When macro traders de-risk into headlines like this, liquid markets tend to transmit the shock first and crypto, with its 24\/7 structure and deep derivatives footprint, often becomes the pressure valve.<\/p>\n<p>On-chain and venue-level indicators suggested the sell pressure was not simply offshore flow. CryptoQuant analyst Mignolet pointed to an elevated \u201cCPG\u201d (Coinbase Premium Gap), a metric tracking the price differential between Coinbase\u2019s USD market and Binance\u2019s USDT market that is often read as a proxy for US-led demand or supply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the strongest selling premium (CPG) in recent periods. Since the ETF market was not open at the time, this selling pressure is coming from US whales operating outside of ETFs. It\u2019s one of the traditional selling patterns we\u2019ve seen repeatedly in the past,\u201d Mignolet wrote in a CryptoQuant <a href=\"https:\/\/cryptoquant.com\/insights\/quicktake\/696d7f85c262194c0f2b51b8-Strongest-CPG-Premium-in-Recent-Periods\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">note<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" class=\"wp-image-876421 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbtc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/G_AqRtJWoAABrEr.jpg?resize=1024%2C529\" alt=\"Coinbase Premium Gap\" width=\"1024\" height=\"529\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That framing matters because it implies the move wasn\u2019t driven by ETF creations\/redemptions, so the marginal seller was active in spot\/OTC and derivatives channels that remain open through the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Once spot price slipped through key levels, futures mechanics did the rest. Coinglass data showed 249.422 traders were liquidated, the total liquidations coming in at $874.93 million over the past 24 hours. Longs accounted for $787.92 million versus $87.01 million in shorts, an asymmetric wipeout that typically reflects crowded long exposure being force-closed into falling prices.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-876422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbtc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-19-093427.png?resize=1024%2C363\" alt=\"Crypto market liquidation data\" width=\"1024\" height=\"363\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At press time, Bitcoin recovered to $93,000.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" class=\"size-full wp-image-876424\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbtc.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/BTCUSDT_2026-01-19_11-28-57.png?resize=1024%2C473\" alt=\"Bitcoin price chart\" width=\"1024\" height=\"473\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin slid to $91,920 late Sunday in New York, down 3.8% from roughly $95,500, as a sharp risk-off impulse hit crypto markets and quickly bled into high beta majors. Ether fell as much as 5.3% to $3,177, while XRP and Solana underperformed with drawdowns of 10.4% to $1.847 and 9% to $130, respectively, as leveraged&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,26,17,806,3789,2525],"class_list":["post-18548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency-market-news","tag-bitcoin-news","tag-crypto-news","tag-cryptocurrency-market-news","tag-why-is-bitcoin-down-today","tag-why-is-bitcoin-going-down-today","tag-why-is-crypto-down-today"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinsrise.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}