Bitcoin’s tariff shock reversed after Canada and Mexico pauses

Bitcoin fell to a three-week low of $91,441.89 during the overnight session on February 3, 2025, as markets priced the risk of a North American trade war. It then reversed above $100,000 after the United States paused planned tariffs on Mexico and Canada. The same-day round trip made cryptocurrency’s exposure to macro policy unusually visible: bitcoin traded continuously through the weekend shock, before U.S. equity markets had opened, and then responded rapidly when the policy path changed.

The verified development was not a change to Bitcoin’s protocol or U.S. crypto regulation. It was a repricing of a globally traded digital asset around tariff decisions. That distinction matters because the chronology supports a strong association, but it cannot prove that every trade or forced closure was caused by the tariff news.

From weekend shock to three-week low

On February 1, the White House announced additional tariffs of 25% on imports from Mexico and most imports from Canada, 10% on Canadian energy products, and 10% on imports from China. The Canada and Mexico measures were scheduled to begin on February 4.

Reuters reported that bitcoin reached $91,441.89 overnight and stood at $95,730.35 at 09:41 GMT on February 3, down 6.2% on its stated daily comparison. Those figures describe Reuters’ cross-market observation, not an official closing price. Bitcoin has no consolidated closing auction, and prices vary across exchanges.

Associated Press placed the move in a broader sequence: bitcoin had traded around $105,000 shortly after the February 1 tariff announcement, fell to roughly $92,000 on Sunday night, and recovered above $100,000 on Monday afternoon after the Mexico pause was announced. AP also reported substantially weaker performance in ether, dogecoin and other large crypto assets, indicating that the shock was not confined to bitcoin.

The reversal followed two formal pauses

The policy reversal was documented in two White House orders dated February 3. The Mexico order postponed the additional 25% duty until March 4 at 12:01 a.m. Eastern. The Canada order postponed the 25% duty and the 10% energy duty to the same date and time. The 10% China tariff was not included in those pauses.

CoinMarketCap’s February 3 historical snapshot subsequently showed bitcoin at $101,405.42, up 3.80% over its displayed 24-hour window. Ether was $2,884.57, up 0.55% over 24 hours but down 9.26% over seven days. The snapshot’s aggregated prices and returns are not venue-specific executions, and its page does not expose a universal market-close time. They are best read as evidence that much of the intraday bitcoin decline had reversed by the snapshot, not as a definitive daily settlement.

The sequence also complicated simple “crash” descriptions. A trader looking only at the overnight low saw severe downside; a later snapshot showed bitcoin higher over 24 hours. Both observations can be true in a continuous market when the measurement endpoints differ.

What the market signal meant

The February 3 move showed that bitcoin’s institutionalization had not insulated it from conventional macro risk. Expectations for tariffs touched inflation, interest rates, currencies and risk appetite—the same channels that influence technology shares and other volatile assets. Crypto’s always-open market made it an early venue for expressing that uncertainty.

Interpretation should remain bounded. The contemporaneous reports connected the selloff and rebound to tariff news, and the timing is consistent with that account. Neither report supplied transaction-level evidence assigning motive to traders, so the episode does not establish a single-cause model of bitcoin prices.

Later data context

CoinGlass’s later 2025 semiannual review estimated that $2.23 billion of crypto derivatives positions were forcibly liquidated over 24 hours on February 3, including $1.88 billion of longs. That estimate aggregates exchange-reported data and may omit unreported liquidations; it should not be treated as a complete audited loss total.