Bitcoin didn’t blink. President Donald Trump threw global markets into fresh uncertainty on Saturday, hiking tariffs from 10% to 15% just one day after the Supreme Court tore apart his trade powers. Yet crypto sat unmoved, brushing off the noise in a way few expected.
The week had already been bruising enough. On Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court delivered one of Trump’s most severe political setbacks yet—a 6-3 ruling that invalidated his authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The court was blunt: taxing power belongs to Congress, not the White House. The administration’s case that trade deficits and drug smuggling created grounds for emergency tariffs fell flat. Typical to his nature, Trump did not accept the defeat. Hours after the ruling, he announced a 10% global tariff anchored to older trade legislation—the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and the Trade Act of 1974. The next morning, he went further, bumping that figure to 15% through a Truth Social post and daring anyone to challenge him.
Legal Cracks in Trump’s New Tariff Strategy
The new legal ground Trump stands on may be shakier than he lets on. Pro-crypto attorney Adam Cochran pointed out that the statutes the administration now leans on come with real constraints, as tariffs can only target countries where the U.S. carries a trade deficit, the rate has a hard ceiling, and the whole arrangement expires after 150 days. This situation differs significantly from the broad, unending trade war Trump has been advocating, and the likelihood of another legal battle is growing.
Bitcoin and Ether Shrug Off the Noise
Crypto investors who had been steeling themselves for another wave of selling got a rare reprieve on Saturday. Bitcoin sat comfortably near $68,000, while Ether barely moved from where it was when Friday’s tariff news first broke. The Total3 indicator, which measures the broader crypto market outside of Bitcoin and Ether, slipped less than 1% on the day, holding near $713 billion.
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That calm stands in contrast to how markets have behaved through earlier rounds of tariff announcements, which sent both crypto and stocks into sharp downturns and left investors second-guessing every position. It remains to be seen whether Saturday’s steadiness reflects growing confidence that the new tariffs won’t survive legal scrutiny or if the market is simply too exhausted to react.
