Impact of the US Market Opening: 5 Factors Driving Cryptocurrency Markets Toward Collapse in 2026

When the US market opens every morning, most cryptocurrency traders don’t just watch the bell that starts the trading session. They look at a complex set of geopolitical, economic, and technical pressures that shape the fate of their digital wallets. At the beginning of 2026, we witnessed successive collapses in the Bitcoin and altcoin markets, which were not caused solely by regular buying and selling, but by deep factors affecting the entire market balance.

Trade Wars and Tariffs: How Washington’s Policies Pressure Cryptocurrency Markets

Since Donald Trump returned to the U.S. presidency, his administration launched a comprehensive trade war that changed the dynamics of the global market. The tariffs imposed by Washington on China and its trading partners did not only impact physical goods but extended indirectly yet decisively into digital asset markets.

When the US government raises tariffs, consumer income and purchasing power decrease, and inflation rates rise, forcing traders to sell their digital holdings to convert their assets into cash for daily living. Recently, economic tensions have also extended to European-American relations, especially after Washington’s attempts to gain control over Greenland from Denmark, sparking new disputes between Europe and the United States at the latest Davos summit. All this political turmoil translated into ongoing pressure on the cryptocurrency markets.

Liquidity Drain: Major Projects Withdraw and Buying Demand Disappears

One of the harshest lessons the Bitcoin market learned in early 2026 is that true wealth comes from stable liquidity. When Bitcoin plummeted from $120,000 to $80,000 in a short period, the sole cause wasn’t just automated loss-selling. The collapse reflected a severe disappearance of buying liquidity from the market.

MicroStrategy, which had been one of the main drivers pushing Bitcoin to $120,000, significantly halted its purchases. At the same time, many major projects announced bankruptcy or withdrew from the market. KDA was among the first to declare liquidation due to exhausted capital. Regarding meme coins, which had peaked in previous months, they found themselves drifting toward new lows never seen before.

Projects built on Ethereum and Bitcoin networks also suffered from this bleeding. Meanwhile, the market remains heavily dependent on only a few coins that still retain enough liquidity to stay afloat. Since 2024 and 2025, no new project has managed to maintain stability amid these market storms.

Security Breaches: Hacked Data and Traders’ Confidence Shaken

In Q1 of 2025, a major incident shook the market: a large-scale security breach targeting one of the major trading platforms, resulting in the theft of digital assets worth $1.5 billion, including massive amounts of Ethereum.

Rather than encouraging new liquidity to support the market (as in previous security incidents), the hack intensified fear and accelerated withdrawals. While platforms like Binance and others provided financial and technical support to the affected platform, the psychological damage was profound. When Bitcoin later reached $123,000, buying liquidity had completely vanished, leading to a sharp crash in a single day and chaos in the market that couldn’t recover naturally.

Government Shutdown and Financial Crisis: When Traders Sell Their Digital Assets to Survive

One of the strongest pressures on the crypto market came from a purely domestic American source: a government shutdown lasting dozens of days, causing salary delays and income loss for millions of government employees.

In this context, it was no longer a matter of investment but of survival. Thousands resorted to selling their digital currencies at any price to obtain cash for basic living expenses. Some even had to sell other valuable assets like gold. With the government shutdown extending beyond 40 days, US crypto markets suffered heavily, and the negative effects spilled over into global markets.

Currently, there are rumors of a potential return of another government shutdown. If this scenario repeats, Bitcoin is expected to face further pressure and could drop to levels of $70,000–$90,000. This could lead to mass bankruptcies among weak projects and the liquidation of several projects on Binance.

Gold and Geopolitical Conflicts: The Race Toward Safe Havens

Bitcoin is often called “digital gold,” but physical gold still steals the spotlight. Since 2023, gold has experienced a remarkable, unstoppable rise. The relationship between gold and Bitcoin is not neutral: when gold rises, demand for Bitcoin decreases, as investors rush toward traditional safe havens instead of digital assets.

Currently, gold prices are at $5,110 per ounce, a level that strongly pressures Bitcoin’s appeal and reduces available liquidity in the crypto markets. The root cause of this gold pressure is the ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East.

Tensions between Iran, Israel, and the US over Iran’s nuclear program create uncertainty, prompting investors to prefer safe havens. With the possibility of a broad regional conflict affecting the Gulf countries, analysts expect gold prices to rise to $6,000 per ounce in Q2 of 2026. Currently, everything remains uncertain, and this very uncertainty keeps gold high and Bitcoin under pressure.

The Current Situation: When the US Market Opens

When the US market opens every morning, traders await a new wave of pressures or relief. As of February 2026, prices are moving relatively calmly:

• Bitcoin (BTC): trading at $69.39K, down 2.40% in 24 hours
• Ethereum (ETH): trading at $2.06K, down 2.59%
• Binance Coin (BNB): trading at $629.90, down 1.95%

But this calm is only relative. The five forces we described continue to operate beneath the surface. A trader watching the US market opening knows it’s not just an ordinary market opening, but the start of a day that could bring opportunity or disaster, depending on the convergence of these geopolitical, economic, and security factors that keep evolving.