How Bitcoin, XRP, Other Cryptos Fared in Trump's First 100 Days
By Elsa OhlenThe price of Bitcoin reached a record high after President Donald Trump was elected late last year, but the major cryptocurrencies have mostly underperformed equities since he took office.Bitcoin traded flat over the past 24 hours at $94,809, according to CoinDesk data early Wednesday.Ether and Solana, the world's second and sixth largest cryptocurrencies, fell about 1% each. Dogecoin dropped 3%.XRP, the token used to settle and facilitate transactions on Ripple's payment platform, was down about 2.5% early Wednesday.XRP has been one of the main beneficiaries of Donald Trump winning a second term in the White House. Much of that optimism came from the expectation that Trump would appoint a crypto-friendly head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and that the regulator's long-running legal case against Ripple would be dropped.In 2020, the SEC charged Ripple with selling an unregistered security. In March this year, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the regulator had dropped the case.Yet, since Trump took office on Jan. 20, the price of XRP — as well as most other large cryptos — have fallen. Bitcoin is down about 8%, while Ether has fallen 45% and Solana has dropped about 40%. XRP is down some 27% while Dogecoin has fallen the most — about 50%.Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is down about 8% and the Nasdaq Composite has dropped some 11% since the inauguration.Cryptos, especially altcoins, are highly volatile assets and it may not take much for them to start rising.Macroeconomic factors such as interest rates and trade policy typically affect sentiment around riskier assets such as cryptos. Key economic data including the consumer price index, April's jobs report, and GDP figures are scheduled for this week, which could affect prices of digital assets.Write to Elsa Ohlen at [email protected] content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.