Bitcoin dropped below $90,000 to its lowest since November 18 on Tuesday, as market nerves over U.S. tariffs reinforced the blow to crypto investor confidence from last week's $1.5 billion hack of ether from the Bybit exchange.

After exchange operator loses ether from a cold wallet in a North Korea-linked attack, bitcoin and ether fall as industry enthusiasm wanes.

Following the revelation Friday from cryptocurrency exchange firm Bybit that hackers stole digital tokens worth about $1.5 billion – in what may be the biggest crypto heist of all time – CEO Ben Zhou wrote on X Sunday that it has replenished its reserves. Bybit was able to do this through a mix of emergency loans and large deposits.

Bitcoin headed for its biggest one-day drop since August on Tuesday, driven by nervousness over U.S. tariffs and results from Nvidia, as last week's hack of $1.5 billion worth of ether from the Bybit exchange delivered a blow to investor confidence.

Bitcoin, BTC= the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value, broke below $90,000 to its lowest since November 18, falling by as much as 7.5% at one point. It was last down 5% on the day at $89,314.

Bybit’s $1.4 billion hack, the largest in crypto history, might have unexpected implications for Ethereum. As the exchange moves to recover, could this be a bullish catalyst for ETH?

Ben Zhou, Bybit's CEO, said that the hack had affected around 401,000 Ethereum and sparked a surge in withdrawal requests.