Five times President Trump made a statement that moved bitcoin, and why it might happen again this week
Trump’s social media posts and statements to news reporters have triggered 5% to 12% swings in the price of bitcoin, blurring the lines between policy and market manipulation.
What to know:
- Bitcoin and other risk assets have shown increasing, rapid sensitivity to President Trump’s social media posts and policy announcements, prompting concerns about potential market manipulation and insider trading.
- Lawmakers and experts have flagged a pattern of unusually well-timed trades around Trump-era tariff shifts, military moves and energy decisions, though no evidence has emerged that Trump or his administration violated securities laws.
- A series of Trump statements since 2019 has repeatedly triggered sharp bitcoin price swings, and fresh volatility around conflicting reports on the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz suggests markets remain highly reactive to his comments.
A recent University of Oxford Faculty of Law study found sharp swings in global markets following rapid changes in U.S. tariff policy, including a sequence in which prices across crypto and stock markets fell after new tariffs were announced, then rebounded after Trump partially rolled them back days later.
The scale and timing of those moves, the author noted, created “fantastic trading opportunities” for anyone with advanced knowledge of the decisions. Also, those back-and-forth decisions by Trump have been widely criticized and called the Trump Again Chickens Out (TACO) dynamic.
‘A great time to buy’
The issue gained further attention after Trump posted “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO BUY!! on Truth Social in April 2025 shortly before announcing a tariff adjustment that sent markets higher, prompting calls from lawmakers, including Senator Adam Schiff, for an investigation into potential insider trading or market manipulation.
