U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned European countries against retaliating against the U.S.'s trade tariffs over the Greenland crisis.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20, Bessent reminded everyone of the tariff war the U.S. initiated on "Liberation Day" when President Donald Trump announced "reciprocal" tariffs on countries across the world on Apr. 2, 2025.
Related: Billionaire warns Greenland episode shatters Bitcoin myth
As Trump plans to acquire Greenland, he has threatened to impose a 10% tariff on imports from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Finland beginning Feb. 1, which will increase to 25% beginning June 1.
With countries in Europe contemplating their next steps, Bessent said, "I would say this is the same kind of hysteria that we heard on April 2nd. There was a panic."
Only China escalated the tariff war with the U.S. last year, which led to an extended tit-for-tat situation but Trump's relationship with the Chinese president Xi Jinping stabilized that relationship, Bessent claimed.
As far as the additional tariffs over the Greenland crisis are concerned, he said they are very different from other trade deals. He asked all countries to "stick" to their trade deals.
Bessent urged everyone to "sit back, take a deep breath, and let things play out."
"As I said on April 2 nd , the worst thing countries can do is escalate against the United States."
Trump's tariffs and crypto stocks
The tariff war initiated by Trump rattled the global stock markets and the crypto equities remained no exception .
However, while tech stocks managed to recover from the tariff shocks, crypto-linked stocks have found it difficult to stage a comeback.
For example, tech stocks like Nvidia (Nasdaq: NVDA) and Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA) are nearly at the same price point after three months despite ebbs and flows.
On the other hand, a crypto stock like Michael Saylor's Strategy (Nasdaq: MSTR), the world's leading Bitcoin (BTC) treasury company, is around 40% down over the last three months.
Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL), the stablecoin giant which debuted with a blockbuster IPO in June last year, is similarly down by roughly 40% over the last three months.
More News:
Crypto stocks sink as 'Sell America' fear grips markets
As the stock market opened on Jan. 20 after the holiday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 19), all the leading crypto stocks sank.
It only demonstrated that the "Sell America" sentiment has returned to haunt the markets amid the tariff escalations.
The MSTR stock was exchanging hands at $159.84 at press time, down roughly 8% in a day.
The CRCL stock was down 7%, exchanging hands at $73.12.
Bitmine Immersion Technologies (NYSE: BMNR), the leading Ethereum treasury company led by Wall Street legend Tom Lee, was down 8%. It was exchanging hands at $28.67.
Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN), the leading crypto exchange in the U.S., was similarly down by more than 5.5% and was trading at $227.37.
Robinhood Markets (Nasdaq: HOOD), the e-trading platform offering crypto assets and tokenized stocks, was down 3% and was trading at $105.27.
Gemini (Nasdaq: GEMI), the crypto exchange led by the Winklevoss twins, was down 4.8% and was exchanging hands at $10.41.
Galaxy Digital (Nasdaq: GLXY), the crypto asset manager, sank 6.5% to trade at $32.
Related: Treasury Secretary says millions of Americans may see 'largest tax refunds of their lives'
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the Trading News & Analysis section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
