'2025 is a manufactured crisis': Startup founder on sharp market crash and global sell-off

As markets reeled under the weight of sharp sell-offs across global indices, Wisdom Hatch founder Akshat Shrivastava on Monday called the ongoing turmoil a "manufactured crisis", pointing to the difference between the current situation and past financial shocks.

“2020 was a genuine crises. Within a few months, the markets (after falling) made an all-time-high. 2025 is a manufactured crisis," he said on X. "People have been saying a lot of stuff. At the end of the day: it is a giant negotiation, not really a crisis. Of course there is uncertainty and egos in play. And, markets can remain uncertain. But, you can't compare this to 2020 or even 2008 recessions.” 

Shrivastava's remarks came after benchmark indices in India witnessed their steepest single-day fall in ten months. The BSE Sensex crashed 2,226.79 points or 2.95 per cent to settle at 73,137.90, while the NSE Nifty dropped 742.85 points or 3.24 per cent to close at 22,161.60. Intra-day, the Sensex plunged as much as 3,939.68 points (5.22%) and the Nifty fell 1,160.8 points (5.06%) — among the sharpest drops since June 2024.

The sell-off was triggered by fears that US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff measures, coupled with China's retaliatory duties of 34 per cent on American goods, could drag the global economy into a recession. Monday's fall marked the worst opening for Nifty 50 since the COVID crash in March 2020.

The pressure wasn't limited to India. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plunged over 13 per cent, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped nearly 8 per cent, China’s SSE Composite fell more than 7 per cent, and South Korea’s Kospi slipped over 5 per cent. European markets also saw heavy losses, with indices trading more than 4 per cent lower.

US stocks extended their losses for a third straight session. The Dow tumbled more than 2,200 points on Friday and has continued to fall, while the S&P 500 logged its sharpest single-day loss since March 2020, down 6 per cent. The Nasdaq has now officially entered bear market territory, falling over 22 per cent from its peak.

Investors had hoped for signs of de-escalation over the weekend, but President Trump struck a defiant note. “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” he said. “We’re losing hundreds of billions of dollars a year to China. Until we fix that, there won’t be a deal.”

Meanwhile, trade tensions has escalated between the US and China. After Beijing imposed a 34 per cent retaliatory tariff on US exports, Trump issued an ultimatum through a fiery post on Truth Social. He accused China of imposing “record setting Tariffs, Non-Monetary Tariffs, Illegal Subsidization of companies, and massive long term Currency Manipulation,” and warned that “any country that Retaliates against the U.S. by issuing additional Tariffs... will be immediately met with new and substantially higher Tariffs.”

Setting a deadline, Trump declared that unless China withdraws its retaliatory move by April 8, “the United States will impose ADDITIONAL Tariffs on China of 50%, effective April 9th.” He also threatened to cut off negotiations: “All talks with China concerning their requested meetings with us will be terminated!”