The U.S. Supreme Court could issue its much-awaited ruling on the litigation challenging President Donald Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs on Jan. 14.
It was on Apr. 2 last year that Trump announced sweeping global tariffs, with China being a particular target.
The U.S. administration argued that trade deficits constituted a national emergency, and therefore, the president could invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to issue tariff orders as he didn't need to consult with Congress for the same.
Trump's tariffs got challenged in the Supreme Court by several businesses and 12 U.S. states, mostly Democratic-governed.
Related: Mysterious trader buys millions ahead of Supreme Court's Trump tariff ruling
What Supreme Court's tariff ruling implies
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case on Nov. 5, 2025, and is expected to issue a ruling on Trump's tariffs on Jan. 14.
The upcoming ruling has huge implications for global trade and commerce. Its significance is best reflected in Trump's Jan. 12 post on Truth Social .
The president wrote that if the Supreme Court were to rule against tariffs, the U.S. would have to pay back "Hundreds of Billions of Dollars." If the "payback" to countries and companies making investments also gets included, the figure jumps to "Trillions of Dollars," he added.
"It would be a complete mess, and almost impossible for our Country to pay," Trump wrote.
"In other words, if the Supreme Court rules against the United States of America on this National Security bonanza, WE'RE SCREWED!"
As per a Reuters report , the Trump administration would have to reimburse as much as $133.5 billion to importers who have already paid the duties in case the court issues a ruling against the tariffs.
However, if the court grants limited powers to the president under IEEPA in the ruling, the Trump administration could get away with limited repayments.
Whatever the court decides has huge implications for the global markets, including crypto markets.
Every time Trump announced tariff hikes over the past few months, it rattled the digital assets market.
When the president threatened on Oct. 10, 2025, that the U.S. will hike tariffs on China to 100%, it led to a crypto flash crash that witnessed more than $19 billion getting wiped out in a day.
The Jan. 14 ruling is therefore being closely watched within the crypto circles.
More News:
Mysterious trader flips from long to short ahead of tariff ruling
There are several mysterious cryptocurrency traders who tend to make moves ahead of such key events and make millions of dollars worth of profits.
Notably, a crypto trader netted millions by shorting Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) ahead of Trump's China announcement on Oct. 10 last year.
When the Supreme Court was earlier expected to issue the tariff ruling on Jan. 9, a crypto whale bought Solana (SOL) tokens worth roughly $8 million. The order is still open.
Now, another mysterious crypto trader has closed long positions to net a multi-million-dollar profit and then gone short on popular cryptocurrencies ahead of the Supreme Court's tariff ruling on Jan. 14.
As per the onchain analytics platform Lookonchain , the trader closed $413 million worth of long crypto positions and locked in a profit of $14.5 million on Jan. 13.
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Closed BTC long worth $234.23 million for a profit of $7.06 million
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Closed ETH long worth $103.87 million for a profit of $5.4 million
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Closed SOL long worth $71.75 million for a profit of $1.96 million
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Closed HYPE long worth $1.07 million for a profit of $67,000
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Closed XRP long worth $2.01 million for a profit of $9,500
The trader closed the long positions above as the crypto market surged after cool December 2025 inflation data.
BTC surged above $95,000, ETH above $3,300, XRP to $2.18, SOL above $145, and HYPE above $26.
However, the trader seems to think the Supreme Court ruling would have the crypto assets retreating again.
Therefore, he has flipped from long to short and opened 20 times leveraged short crypto positions on Jan. 14, as Lookonchain reported :
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BTC worth $44.1 million
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ETH worth $22 million
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SOL worth $7.8 million
The crypto whale executed all these trades on Hyperliquid, the popular decentralized crypto trading exchange.
As per HyperDash , the trader is sitting on an unrealized profit of nearly $24.5 million at the time of writing.
For now, the trader is sitting on an unrealized loss of $42,891.72 on the recently opened leveraged short positions on BTC, ETH, and SOL.
The fate of these trades depends on how the Supreme Court's ruling on Trump's tariffs impacts the prices of these three cryptocurrencies.
This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 14, 2026, where it first appeared in the MARKETS section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
