After Stocks & Oil, Will China’s Protests Impact Crypto Markets?

With ongoing protests in China affecting oil & stock markets globally, will the crypto market be any exception?
By Pratik Bhuyan
Updated May 19, 2025
china protests crypto market

On Monday, there was a widespread decline in the price of stocks and commodities as a result of unprecedented protests in key Chinese cities over the country’s stringent zero-COVID limits. These protests hampered growth prospects in the world’s second-largest economy and have severely damaged the financial markets including crypto.

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Stocks & Oil Tumble Amidst Protests

A bumpy stock market surge that began the previous week and had gained momentum got interrupted this weekend as a result of clashes between police and demonstrators in a number of major cities around the country.

With S&P 500 futures pointing in a downward direction by 0.8%, it appeared as though the gloomy sentiment would prevail on the U.S. markets on Monday.

Oil prices, which are sensitive to the severity of China’s lockdown as a barometer for demand, also dropped significantly. The price of a barrel of Brent crude had later fallen by 3.1%, reaching $81.05.

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Crypto Faces China’s Brunt

The crypto market has been historically seen to mimic the larger U.S. Stock Market and possibilities are, it won’t be different this time as well. Already, Bitcoin and Ethereum fell in Asia mirroring the price drops seen across financial markets in Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Bitcoin’s price saw a sudden sell-off on November 28 after a consolidative weekend and is currently trading at $16,187, a down of 2.3$% in the past 24 hours. The number two cryptocurrency, next to Bitcoin — Ethereum also saw a fall of 3.6% and is hovering around the $1,170 level at the time of writing.

Read More: Bitcoin Miners Capitulation To Hurt BTC Even More?

Due to the high correlation between Bitcoin price and the stock markets, BTC will be affected by further geopolitical issues moving forward.

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China’s COVID Worries

Monday marked the sixth day in a row that China reported a record number of new local cases, with a total of 40,052 new infections.

Wuhan, Chengdu, Shanghai and parts of the capital Beijing faced most of the brunt when restrictions were put in place.

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Pratik Bhuyan
Pratik has been a crypto evangelist since 2016 & been through almost all that crypto has to offer. Be it the ICO boom, bear markets of 2018, Bitcoin halving to till now - he has seen it all.
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