XRP, Bitcoin Price Steadies as Gold Soars. What Trump Has to Do With It. — Barrons.com

By Elsa OhlenBitcoin, XRP and other cryptocurrencies were trading mostly sideways early Friday as President Donald Trump's fresh tariff threats had markets on edge — pushing gold prices to a record high.The price of the world's largest crypto, Bitcoin, is trading largely flat over the past 24 hours at $104,974, according to CoinDesk data.It dropped below $100,000 earlier this week as investors panicked about a low-cost and competitive artificial intelligence model out of China. The news about DeepSeek's AI led to a tech selloff Monday as investors worried that spending on the technology may decline, and cryptos moved in tandem with the broader market as the Nasdaq 100 fell 3%.The popular and fast-growing altcoin XRP was trading 0.7% higher at $3.1 early Friday.On Thursday Trump confirmed plans to impose 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico starting Feb. 1., which had investors rushing to safe-haven assets such as gold. Futures tied to the precious metal were trading at $2,845 a troy ounce early Friday, having reached a record of $2,860 a troy ounce earlier in the session.The absence of a big drop in the price of Bitcoin, traditionally seen as a riskier asset, could be a sign that crypto is becoming more mainstream in the eyes of investors.Cryptocurrencies have been boosted by optimism around what Trump's second presidency will mean for the "digital gold." XRP is leading the gains among major cryptos since Nov. 5, up about 500%.Trump has pledged to make the U.S. the crypto capital of the world, and create a strategic reserve of Bitcoin, but has yet to fulfill those promises."With Trump's inauguration festivity behind, the crypto market is shifting focus to US inflation data today and jobs report next week," Bitbank crypto analyst Yuya Hasegawa wrote Friday. "Depending on those data, the price of bitcoin could fall back to $100k next week," he added.The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.3% in December, up 2.6% from a year earlier. That was largely in line with expectations and crypto prices didn't immediately react.Among other digital coins, Ether was trading 3% higher Friday, Solana was up 0.4% and meme coin Dogecoin rose 1% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data.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.