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  • đŸ‡ș🇾 Court Says No. White House Says Yes. Tariffs Return at 15%.

đŸ‡ș🇾 Court Says No. White House Says Yes. Tariffs Return at 15%.

PLUS: Supreme Court blocks emergency powers, Trump pivots to Section 122, $8.2B in goods sit in limbo, trade partners reassess, Bitcoin slips below $65K, gold absorbs flows, and XRP sees $1.93B in realized losses.

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Cryptopolitan News
February 23, 2026 ‱ Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Court: No. White House:Yes. Tariffs are back at 15%.

The president had overstepped by using emergency powers to impose broad tariffs,” the Supreme Court ruled on Friday. And: sweeping tariffs are the purview of Congress not the executive branch.

That would have frozen the policy.

In its stead, within hours, Trump signed a new order hiking the global tariff rate to 15 percent and this time invoking Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act: which allows temporary tariffs for up to 150 days on ‘national security’ grounds rarely used power.

Different legal tool. Same trade direction.

Or as Chief trade negotiator Jamieson Greer summed it up: The legal road might be different but the policy was not.

$8.2 Billion of goods in the middle

It is too early for more than a hint, but the United States trade deficit slipped in April as exports and imports fell sharply.

As Washington bickers about the power of Big Tech, lawmakers may hurt small businesses in the process.

Now, some $8.2 billion worth of imported goods are hung up in a bizarre limbo. The initial tax was imposed in coordination with the customs. The payments were built directly into port software and classification systems.

Now, courts have questioned whether those duties exist.

Importers are asking practical questions:

  • Are existing payments refundable?

  • What rate will apply to the shipments in the pipeline?

  • Bilateral trade deals are still operative? Or does the 15% trump them?

India delayed a trade delegation. The EU is rethinking that position. China is watching closely. In the meantime, protesting is well underway.

Port uncertainty means delays, storage fees and planning headaches.

Trade agreements now in limbo

In the last year, just some 20 countries agreed with Washington on new rates including Britain and the European Union, as well as countries like Malaysia, Cambodia and India.

Greer says those arrangements are still in place.

Section 122 has never been used at this magnitude, legal experts say, leaving the door open for further litigation. The 15 percent tariff also sunsets in 150 days unless Congress extends it.

The timeline alone helps keep the negotiations fluid.

Trade partners are beginning to reassess their leverage. And some may believe they have already secured lower rates thanks to the court ruling, which required no additional concessions.

Markets adjust. Crypto slides.

Stocks responded to the fresh tariff shock.

Bitcoin initially steadied, but it soon dropped through below $65,000 and traded more with risk on a wider scale than as a hedge. There wasn’t panic selling. But there wasn’t resilience either.

That’s notable.

When tariffs would rise, it used to mean instant crypto volatility. This time around the move was slower, based on positioning at a macro level rather than headline fear.

The bigger picture

The 15% number matters. But what markets are actually digesting is policy volatility. The legal framework is reshaped by a Supreme Court ruling. A new executive order returns the tariff direction.

Customs systems and international trading partners hustle to adapt. For businesses, it means planning is even tougher. For markets, it’s a matter of risk premiums edging higher.

And for crypto, it means the macro backdrop remains vulnerable, even if the reaction is not eruptive.

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📊 Market Watch

đŸ‡ș🇾 Tariffs are back. And nobody is totally sure how this all ends.

The Supreme Court blocked a big sweep of the old tariff system last week. In a 6–3 decision, it declared that the president could not use emergency powers to impose itself wide-ranging tariffs on other countries.

That should have settled it.

Instead, the White House unveiled a 15 percent global tariff under an entirely different law. It’s temporary: The program is limited to 150 days unless Congress intervenes.

Now businesses find themselves in the middle.

Some companies are getting ready to file refund claims that could add up to $175 billion. Trade courts are gearing up. For shipments that are already in transit, an issue that remains is which rate applies.

All of this is playing out during a busy data week:

  • Consumer confidence

  • Producer Price Index

  • 11 Fed speeches

  • Nvidia earnings

Markets were already drifting sideways. Now there’s a reason to remain skeptical.

đŸ„‡ While no one is looking, gold is winning round.

Nouriel Roubini reappeared this week and did a little what he does best.

He referred to Bitcoin as a “pseudo-asset class.” Argued that it was never a true hedge against inflation. Mocked the GENIUS Act. Warned stablecoins could create run dynamics if taken too far into the system.

In a normal time, that sort of rhetoric would sound like background noise.

But Bitcoin is down over 40% from its highs. ETF outflows are real. Dip buyers aren’t as aggressive. Gold ETFs, meanwhile, have taken in over $16 billion in the past three months.

That’s where money is flowing.

On the flip side, Robert Kiyosaki says he’s buying more Bitcoin, and that debt and printing money will eventually reverse the script.

It is one of these few moments when the same macro ambience fosters totally opposite convictions.

đŸ”» XRP fans are feeling it.

$1.93 billion in realized losses on XRP this week, according to on-chain data. It’s the largest jump since late 2022.

Put simply, people are selling below where they bought.

That usually means frustration. Exhaustion. Capitulation.

The last time losses accelerated like this, interestingly enough, XRP would continue to rally hard in the months that followed. No guarantees, but traders have long memories.

At the same time, institutional moves have not halted:

  • SBI of Japan issues „10B bond that pays out with XRP

  • SociĂ©tĂ© GĂ©nĂ©rale launched its Euro stablecoin on the XRP Ledger

  • XRP ETFs have seen three consecutive weeks of inflows

So you have extreme short-term pain 
 and steady long-term infrastructure quietly growing beneath.

That mix doesn’t resolve overnight.

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