Bitcoin prices plummeted after former President Donald Trump suggested that the cryptocurrency could be used to pay off the country’s $35 trillion national debt.
The cryptocurrency market has plunged in recent days amid global uncertainty that has led to investors selling out of risky assets. Monday’s global turmoil across stock markets came amid fears of a possible U.S. recession.
While speaking to Fox Business on Friday, Trump said: “Who knows? Maybe we’ll pay off our $35 trillion, hand them a little crypto check, right?”
“We’ll hand them a little bitcoin and wipe out our $35 trillion,” he said.
Bitcoin dropped 12 percent in the past 24 hours and ether plunged by 21 percent in the same time period.
The price of bitcoin has been dropping since Friday, and briefly dropped to below $50,000 on Monday. This was the first time it had dropped below these levels since February.
The cryptocurrency market has experienced losses in value of about $500 billion in a three-day period, according to CoinTelegraph, a cryptocurrency news site.
In recent weeks Trump has been attempting to position himself firmly as pro-crypto.
Speaking at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee on July 27, the Republican presidential candidate unveiled his plans to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” if he is elected for a second term.
He also spoke about the U.S. creating a “strategic national bitcoin reserve.” This is an idea currently being championed by Republican Senator Cynthia Lummis, and one that has long been hoped for among the cryptocurrency community.
“I am announcing that if I am elected, it will be the policy of my administration, United States of America, to keep 100 percent of all the bitcoin the U.S. government currently holds or acquires into the future, we’ll keep 100 percent,” Trump said.
“I hope you do well, please. This will serve, in effect, as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile.”
Monday’s dramatic plunge marked a major reversal to this trend.
Trump’s position on cryptocurrencies has radically changed over the years. In 2019 he described the market as being “highly volatile and based on thin air” and said he was “not a fan.”
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign for comment via email outside of regular working hours.
The sell-off in the crypto market occurred alongside a plunge in stocks across Asia-Pacific markets.
This stock market decline was partly triggered by weak U.S. jobs data released on Friday, several weak earnings reports from major technology firms last week, and rising tensions in the Middle East.
