U.S. President Donald Trump used his high-profile appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos today to declare that “the economy is booming.” The president then went on to say that the US is “the economic engine” of the world. “When America booms, the entire world booms,” he added. But his remarks landed against a sharply contrasting backdrop in the digital asset market, where a wave of liquidations exceeding $900 million hit the space in the past 24 hours amid intensified investor anxiety. Crypto Hit With Harsh Sell-Off The crypto market entered the week under significant stress, and the latest liquidation spike added a decisive blow. More than $802 million of the amount wiped out came from longs, data from CoinGlass shows. This indicates that traders betting on a rebound were caught off-guard by rapid price reversals across major assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Volatility remains elevated. Bitcoin briefly dipped below $88K in the past 24 hours, but has since recovered to trade above the key level at the time of writing. BTC price (Source: CoinCodex) Meanwhile, altcoins saw deeper losses as leverage unwound aggressively. The size and speed of the liquidations point to a market still struggling to find stability amid geopolitical uncertainty. The crypto market has been in a fragile state ever since the record Oct. 10 liquidations. While prices have tried to recover, and briefly rallied at the start of the year, the geopolitical turbulence around Trump’s tariffs and Greenland comments have introduced additional fear in the crypto market. That has seen the capitalization of the crypto space fall more than 2% in the past 24 hours, pushing the sector’s valuation to below the $3 trillion mark as a result. A More Complicated Economic Picture for the U.S. While Trump says the U.S. economy is booming, data from the past several weeks paints a more nuanced view. The U.S. economy expanded at about 4.3% annually in Q3 2025, one of the fastest rates since 2023. Trump has also made several claims about inflation “stopping” or falling sharply, which have been disputed by analysts. This is as price pressures remain persistent in energy, housing, and food, with tariff-driven import costs raising concerns for businesses. Hiring has slowed dramatically compared with 2024, according to recent analyses. Wage growth has also softened. Economists caution that the slowdown could become more pronounced if tariffs trigger further trade tensions. Meanwhile, polling shows Americans increasingly dissatisfied with the economic direction, particularly as living costs remain high despite encouraging headline metrics. In short, while the top-line numbers are strong, many of the underlying indicators suggest an uneven recovery.
