Donald Trump

President Donald Trump

Elon Musk

The world's wealthiest individual, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/robinhood-reportedly-cut-out-of-blockbuster-spacex-ipo" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Elon Musk</a>, is best known for his ambitious technological vision for the world.
Whether it's politics, global markets, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, or the human race to Mars, he doesn't hesitate to share his views even if they divide the internet.
So, he naturally couldn't resist reacting when a billionaire CEO remarked on the heated competition between the United States and China.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/michael-burry-drops-bombshell-on-spacex-openai-anthropic-ipos" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Michael Burry drops bombshell on SpaceX, OpenAI IPOs</a>
<h2 id="musk-responds-to-coinbase-ceo-s-take-on-u-s-china-rivalry">Musk responds to Coinbase CEO's take on U.S.-China rivalry</h2>
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/policy/coinbase-ceo-slams-bessents-comments-on-stalled-crypto-bill" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Brian Armstrong</a> is the co-founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/coinbase-ceo-proposes-surprising-fix-to-60b-remittance-fees" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Coinbase Global</a> (Nasdaq: COIN), the largest crypto trading exchange in the U.S.
The billionaire CEO <a href="https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2062645523119583355" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">wrote an X post</a> on June 4 and said the competition&nbsp;with China might be the best thing to happen to the U.S. since the Cold War. While the U.S. had led the world for decades, he said, that leadership had also bred complacency.
"Competition breeds excellence," he added.
Musk didn't disagree and had a blunt, one-word <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2062752316877377641" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">response</a> to Armstrong's post, "True."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
 True— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2062752316877377641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">June 5, 2026</a>
</blockquote>
The Cold War was a period of international geopolitical rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that began after&nbsp;the Second World War in 1945 and ended with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
In the early 20th century, China emerged as the new rising superpower, and the U.S. has been attempting to challenge its rising global dominance through an aggressive tariff war.
After coming to power for the second time, President Donald Trump initiated a tariff war with the Asian superpower and levied what he called <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/trading/analyst-who-predicted-liberation-day-crash-issues-another-prediction" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">"Liberation Day" tariffs</a>&nbsp;on Apr. 2, 2025.
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The trade policy led to wild swings in the crypto markets, and the total&nbsp;market cap declined from $2.74 trillion on Apr. 2 to $2.42 trillion on Apr. 8 last year.
When Trump rescinded the tariffs on all countries for 90 days except China, it turned out the Asian giant was the primary target of the U.S. Soon, the crypto market began to recover and slowly became resilient to such tariff shocks.
On Oct. 6, <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/bitcoin" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bitcoin</a> (BTC) hit an all-time high of $126,080 as the total market cap stood at $4.37 trillion.
But when Trump <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/-trump-china-tariffs-crypto" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">threatened</a> to hike tariffs on China by 100% on Oct. 10,&nbsp;over $19 billion <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/over-19-billion-liquidated-crypto-crash-trump-tariffs" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">got wiped out</a> in leveraged crypto positions in the day.
The crypto market is yet to recover, with Bitcoin <a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/bitcoin-crashes-below-60k-for-first-time-in-21-months" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">crashing below</a> $60,000 for the first time today since October 2024. The total crypto market cap stood at $2.16 trillion at the time of writing.
<a href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/markets/elon-musk-brings-back-his-mcdonalds-happy-meal-offer" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Related: Elon Musk brings back his McDonald's Happy Meal offer</a>

Elon Musk has blunt one-word response to U.S.-China rivalry

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