Nick was enjoying his Saturday off work in Pennsylvania when he received an unexpected and alarming message: cryptocurrencies, buoyed since Donald Trump's November 5 election win, were in freefall.

The crash immediately wiped out tens of thousands of dollars from his savings.

"I clicked on it and watched it for like a minute just drop straight down," the 28-year-old American construction worker, who asked for anonymity because of sensitivities around investing in crypto assets, told AFP.

"I was like, 'Well, I guess I should stop looking at it now'," he added with a laugh.

Crypto investors like Nick are being buffeted by Trump's vow to make the United States the "crypto capital of the planet" while at the same time upending trade and other policy areas with a raft of executive orders and announcements.

Digital currencies are now seeing sudden fluctuations that are impacting legions of both small and large investors.

Last weekend, cryptos suffered a meltdown after Trump announced impending trade tariffs on US imports........

© International Business Times