Bitcoin climbed close to $66,000 ahead of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, then slipped back toward $65,000 within hours after the speech made no direct reference to crypto. The move amounted to roughly a 1.5% decline, as traders unwound positions built on expectations that Bitcoin would be mentioned.
Pre-speech positioning faded once the address ended
According to the source material, Bitcoin had moved higher before the speech as markets reacted to Trump’s earlier pro-crypto remarks. That trade lost momentum once the address focused on tariff policy, tax cuts, the response to the Iran nuclear issue, and approval of a defense budget. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were not mentioned during the speech, and short-term volatility followed.
Schiff said a sell-off was likely in either scenario
Gold advocate and longtime Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff wrote on social media that the recovery into the event was driven by expectations around Trump’s speech. In his view, if Trump failed to mention Bitcoin, selling pressure would emerge. If he did mention it, the market could still fall because those expectations had already been priced in, leaving room for profit-taking once the event passed.
Schiff also argued that people close to Trump who may have bought Bitcoin in anticipation of such a reference could choose to sell after any mention. His framing matched a classic “buy the rumor, sell the news” setup.
Pullback stayed modest, but Schiff kept his bubble call
The decline after the speech was smaller than Schiff had suggested might happen. Even so, in a separate social media post he described Bitcoin’s multi-year rise as a bubble that is bursting and said the asset could eventually fall toward $40,000.
For this move, the immediate catalyst was the gap between market expectations and the speech itself. Bitcoin rose into the event on anticipation, then eased back after the anticipated crypto reference never came, returning the price to the $65,000 area.