Coindesk

Nikhil Rathi, has been re-appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of UK’s financial regulator, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Rathi is the first FCA CEO to be granted another five years by the Treasury and will now have more time to execute his plans for the financial sector, including crypto.

Under his leadership, the FCA has registered 51 crypto firms under their money laundering rules. Some of those firms include the likes of crypto and investment companies Coinbase, Revolut, eToro and most recently the largest asset manager BlackRock.

“Rathi will lead the FCA as it continues to drive reform to make the U.K. the best place to do business by removing unnecessary, outdated and duplicate regulations – whilst ensuring consumers are protected from detriment and can be confident in markets,” the post by the Treasury said on Thursday.

The FCA is looking to establish a new crypto regime with a fresh authorization process by 2026. It intends to have papers on stablecoins, trading platforms, staking, prudential crypto exposure and lending by early next year. The regime will go live after the final policy statements are published in 2026.

By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise)

The crypto market consolidated on Wednesday’s tariff pause-spurred price bounce with memecoins, AI and DeFi tokens standing out as the best-performing crypto sub-sectors. Coins including HYPE, HBAR and SHIB led the recovery.

Bullish technical patterns and a sharp overnight pullback in Treasury market volatility, as represented by the MOVE index, suggested further gains are in the offing. The China-sensitive Australian dollar extended Wednesday’s gain, offering positive cues to risk assets. U.S. equity futures, however, did not reflect that optimism, trading more than 1% lower.

Another note of caution showed in derivatives data. LTC, TON, BCH, BNB and PEPE were the only coins with 24-hour growth in open interest, validating price recovery. Open interest in other majors cryptocurrencies, including BTC and ETH, fell, a sign the recovery was mainly led by the unwinding of bearish bets and not fresh bullish positioning.

President Donald Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on China to 125% and reduce others to 10% for 90 days still leaves the U.S. with an average import tax rate of 24% versus 27% before Thursday. That’s still, anti-growth, pro-inflation and anti-risk assets, according to Bloomberg.

In broader crypto market news, the SEC published the 19b-4 filing by Cboe BZX Exchange to list the Fidelity Solana Fund in the Federal Register. That’s said to bring the regulator one step closer to listing the SOL ETF in the U.S.

The minutes of the Federal Reserve’s March meeting showed consensus among policymakers over the risk of the economy entering stagflation, characterized by higher inflation and slower growth, with some members saying “difficult tradeoffs” could lie ahead of the central bank.

The focus today will be on the U.S. consumer price index data for March, which is forecast to have increased by just 0.1% month-on-month, the slowest pace in eight months, according to FXStreet. A soft print may be dismissed as backward-looking, considering the trade war escalated more recently. On the other hand, a hotter-than-expected reading may lift Treasury yields and the dollar. Stay alert!

What to Watch

Crypto

April 10, 10:30 a.m.: Status conference for former Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

April 11, 1 p.m.: U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtable on “Tailoring Regulation for Crypto Trading” in Washington.

April 17: EigenLayer (EIGEN) activates slashing on Ethereum mainnet, enforcing penalties for operator misconduct.

Macro

April 10, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases March consumer price inflation data.

Core Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.2%

Core Inflation Rate YoY Est. 3% vs. Prev. 3.1%

Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.1% vs. Prev. 0.2%

Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.8%

April 10, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Department of Labor releases unemployment insurance data for the week ended April 5.

Initial Jobless Claims Est. 223K vs. Prev. 219K

April 10, 10:00 a.m.: U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing on the nomination of Michelle Bowman as Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision. Livestream link.

April 11, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases March producer price inflation data.

Core PPI MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. -0.1%

Core PPI YoY Est. 3.6% vs. Prev. 3.4%

PPI MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0%

PPI YoY Est. 3.3% vs. Prev. 3.2%

April 14: Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele will join U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House for an official working visit.

Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data)

April 22: Tesla (TSLA), post-market

April 30: Robinhood Markets (HOOD), post-market

Token Events

Governance votes & calls

Spartan Council is voting on raising the liquidation ratio for SNX solo stakers, with an initial increase to 250% on April 11, then to 500% on April 18 and “high enough to deprecate solo SNX staking” on April 21. Voting ends April 19.

Lido DAO is discussing onboarding credit delegation protocol Twyne into the Lido Alliance. Twyne aims to expand stETH’s use cases and is requesting strategic endorsement, promotional support and technical guidance from Lido.

April 10, 10 a.m.: Hedera to host a community call discussing the HBR Foundation joining ERC3643, the non-profit’s standards, and the Header Asset Tokenization Studio.

April 11, 3 p.m.: Zcash to host a town hall on lockbox distribution & governance.

April 14, 10 a.m.: Stacks to host a livestream with recent announcements from the project.

Unlocks

April 10: Internet Computer (ICP) to unlock 0.57% of its circulating supply worth $13.54 million.

April 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.87% of its circulating supply worth $51.69 million.

April 12: Axie Infinity (AXS) to unlock 5.68% of its circulating supply worth $21.73 million.

April 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 4.37% of its circulating supply worth $16.71 million.

April 16: Arbitrum (ARB) to unlock 2.01% of its circulating supply worth $26.27 million.

April 18: Official Trump (TRUMP) to unlock 20.25% of its circulating supply worth $324.35 million.

Token Launches

April 10: Stacks (STX) to be listed on Bitfinex.

April 10: Streamr (DATA) to be listed on Binance.US.

April 10: Babylon (BABY) to be listed on Binance, Bitget, Bybit, Bitrue, KuCoin, OKX, and others.

April 10: Ren (REN), KonPay (KON) and Symbol (XYM) to be delisted from Bybit.

April 22: Hyperlane to airdrop its HYPER tokens.

Conferences:

Day 3 of 3: Paris Blockchain Week

Day 2 of 2: FIBE Fintech Festival Berlin 2025

Day 2 of 2: Mexico Finance & Fintech Summit 2025 (Mexico City)

Day 2 of 2: Middle East Resilient Banking and Payments Symposium 2025 (Abu Dhabi)

April 10: Bitcoin Educators Unconference (Nashville)

April 10: FinXtex Malaysia 2025 (Kuala Lumpur)

April 10: Institutional Crypto Conference (New York)

April 10: SheFi Sumit 2025 (Seoul)

Day 1 of 2: BITE-CON 2025 Conference (Miami)

Day 1 of 2: 2025 Fintech and Financial Institutions Research Conference (Philadelphia)

April 11-12: Strategy’s OPNEXT Conference (Tysons, Va.)

April 12: Ethereum Argentina (Córdoba)

April 12-13: DeSci London 2025

Token Talk

By Shaurya Malwa

DeFi-focused upstart Berachain has recorded net outflows of $320 million in the past week, the most among all networks, followed by Arbitrum with just $30 million in exits.

Berachain’s daily active users dropped from a high of 630,000 on March 3, according to TokenTerminal, to just over 300,000 as of April 8.

The network’s BERA token is down 40% in a week, shrinking its market cap to $465 million and fully diluted value to $2.1 billion. It got a 12% lift on Thursday after Trump’s 90-day tariff pause, but it’s still a far cry from good news.

Total value locked is down 23% to $2.7 billion from a peak of $3.5 billion on March 26, DefiLlama data shows. Still, the blockchain enjoys a cult following and is hyped among retail traders making it one to watch when market conditions improve.

Meanwhile, Ethereum layer-2 Base, backed by Coinbase, has emerged as the top network with over $186 million in net inflows in the past 10 days.

Derivatives Positioning

BTC, ETH annualized futures basis held steady above 5% during the recent rout, signaling resilient market sentiment.

Put skews for the two largest cryptocurrencies on Deribit have weakened, but continue to show downside fears out to the June end expiry.

Flows featured purchases of $100K BTC calls expiring in December, reflecting a bullish long-term outlook.

Market Movements:

BTC is down 1.74% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $81,748.51 (24hrs: +6.2%)

ETH is down 4.65%% at $1,595.49 (24hrs: +7.78%)

CoinDesk 20 is down 1.72% at 2,372.30 (24hrs: +7.55%)

Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 3.69%

BTC funding rate is at 0.0043% (4.7085% annualized) on Binance

DXY is down 0.85% at 102.03

Gold is up 2.23% at $3,124.6/oz

Silver is up 1.68% at $30.83/oz

Nikkei 225 closed +9.13% at 34,609.00

Hang Seng closed +2.06% at 20,681.78

FTSE is up 3.97% at 7,984.64

Euro Stoxx 50 is up 5.33% at 4,868.37

DJIA closed on Wednesday +7.87% at 40,608.45

S&P 500 closed +9.52% at 5,456.90

Nasdaq closed +12.16% at 17,124.97

S&P/TSX Composite Index closed +5.42% at 23,727.00

S&P 40 Latin America closed +7.02% at 2,330.16

U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is down 7 bps at 4.29%

E-mini S&P 500 futures are down 2.13% at 5,374.00

E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 2.44% at 18,818.50

E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are down 1.58% at 40,189.00

Bitcoin Stats:

BTC Dominance: 63.47 (0.34%)

Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.01953 (-3.36%)

Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 899 EH/s

Hashprice (spot): $41.08

Total Fees: 5.6 BTC / $438,630

CME Futures Open Interest: 134,545

BTC priced in gold: 26.2 oz

BTC vs gold market cap: 7.47%

Technical Analysis

The per barrel prices for West Texas Intermediate crude oil have dropped below the long-held support at $67, suggesting more losses ahead.

Sliding crude could help compensate for the inflationary impact of Trump’s tariffs, helping central banks, including the Fed, to cut interest rates and support risk assets in case of a major market instability.

Crypto Equities

Strategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $2296.86 (+24.76%), down 3.64% at $286.06 in pre-market

Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $177.09 (+16.91%), down 2.31% at $173

Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$15.19 (+14.9%)

MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $12.31 (+17.02%), down 2.44% at $12.01

Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $7.38(+12.84%), down 1.56% at $7.26

Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $7.51 (+15.36%), down 3.6% at $7.24

CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $7.63 (+13.2%), down 2.75% at $7.42

CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $13.06 (+13.66%)

Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $35.16 (+9.98%)

Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $43.14 (+7.47%), up 8.92% at $46.99

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs:

Daily net flow: -$127.2 million

Cumulative net flows: $35.61 billion

Total BTC holdings ~ 1.11 million

Spot ETH ETFs

Daily net flow: -$11.2 million

Cumulative net flows: $2.36 billion

Total ETH holdings ~ 3.37 million

Source: Farside Investors

Overnight Flows

Chart of the Day

The chart shows the breakdown of BTC options block trades on Deribit. Block trades are large trades executed on over-the-counter tech platforms and then listed on Deribit.

Selling call options has been the most popular play, a sign market participants are betting on a drop in volatility and slow price ascent.

While You Were Sleeping

China State Media Hints at Rate Cuts to Counter Trump’s Tariffs (Bloomberg): Front-page commentary in the state-run Securities Daily urged rate cuts and lower bank reserve requirements to fight deflation and offset Trump’s tariffs.

Russia, United States to Hold Talks on Diplomatic Missions (Reuters): Talks in Istanbul aim to resolve embassy issues, including restrictions on diplomat movements and frozen assets such as consulates, trade missions, and historic estates.

Crypto Investors Flee Spot Bitcoin, Ether ETFs on Tariff-Driven Uncertainty (CoinDesk): U.S.-listed spot BTC and ETH ETFs saw outflows Wednesday even as cryptocurrency prices surged.

Bitcoin Eyes $87K After Double Bottom Breakout; Dogecoin, XRP Bulls Look to Establish Control (CoinDesk): Bitcoin rebounded from two recent lows near $74,600 and broke above $80,800, a move analysts say could push it toward $87,000.

Binance Gains Market Share as Bitcoin Volume Declined 77% From Yearly Peak: CryptoQuant (CoinDesk): A volume drop of such magnitude suggests traders and investors are losing interest or confidence.

NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Buys Trading App Slingshot (CoinDesk): Slingshot allows trading tokens from a single USDC balance, removing the need for wallet setup, gas fees or moving assets across blockchains, expanding Magic Eden beyond Solana to all chains.

In the Ether

Ether (ETH) fell to a two-year low of $1,412 this week and the volatility appears to have been too much for one long-time holder, who sold of the majority of their stash acquired at around $8 in 2016.

On-chain data shows that the wallet in question swapped 14,015 ETH for $22 million USDC over a 15-hour period on decentralized exchange Uniswap.

The investor also sold 6,630 ETH in May 2022 and 4,035 ETH in June 2023 — each time during a major market dip.

This time was no different with ETH having just tumbled from a cycle high of $4,000 in December. They still hold 521 ETH valued at $830,000.

ETH has rebounded in line with the wider market on Thursday, currently trading at $1,598 having risen by 8.2% in the past 24 hours. Trading volume has also increased by 25% to $33 billion as optimism creeps into the market following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pause tariffs for 90 days.

The Nasdaq closed 12% higher on Wednesday, marking its second-largest gain in history, following President Trump’s decision to pause the implementation of tariffs for 90 days. Strategy (MSTR), one of the fastest-recovering stocks and a component of the Invesco QQQ Trust, Series 1 (QQQ) ETF, surged 25%.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 climbed nearly 10%, recording its third-largest single-day gain—surpassed only by two days in 2008.

While this may seem bullish on the surface, it’s worth noting that the Nasdaq’s three biggest rallies occurred in 2001 and 2008—both during recessions and followed by new lows. Similarly, the S&P 500’s two larger green days were also during the 2008 financial crisis. Investors should be aware of bear market rallies.

There’s growing speculation about why Trump backed off on tariffs. Globally, rising bond yields were rattling markets. According to FOX Business Senior Correspondent Charles Gasparino, the pressure in the bond market may have stemmed from Japan selling bonds—not China, as many had assumed.

As the market rallied, the VIX (Volatility Index) closed at 34, registering the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, surpassing the 2010 record.

Bitcoin (BTC) also saw a spike, briefly rallying above $82,000. However, it remains within the downward channel it has followed since January.

Don’t be fooled by Wednesday’s market turnaround, which saw the S&P 500 equities benchmark climbing by the most since 2008 and significant gains in bitcoin (BTC) and the broader crypto market, as represented by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index.

The rally, sparked by President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 90-day pause on tariffs, fueled social-media optimism of an imminent prolonged bull run in both stocks and crypto. That may be overoptimistic, according to analysts at Goldman Sachs and elsewhere, who note that multiweek, double-digit equity price rallies are quite common even during larger bear markets.

“In most bear markets, given light positioning, marginal changes in these variables can have amplified effects on markets. As a result, bear market rallies are quite common,” Goldman’s strategy team led by Peter Oppenheimer said in a Tuesday note titled “Bear Market Anatomy – the path and shape of the bear market.

There have been 19 global bear market rallies since the 1980s and on an average, “they have lasted 44 days and the MSCI AC World return is 10% to 15%,” the note said.

“One of the worst bear markets of history saw about half a dozen major double-digit rallies before all was said and done,” Callum Thomas, founder and head of research at Topdown Charts, said on X referring to the 1930s. “Is the 90-day bounce a BMR?”

Whether the recent bounce signifies the onset of a new bull run or merely a bear market rally won’t become clear until later. However, certain characteristics of a sustained bottom mentioned by Goldman such as attractive valuations, extreme negative positioning, policy intervention and a slowdown in macroeconomic deterioration, are not yet evident.

The Federal Reserve is unlikely to offer support any time soon, while Trump has only halted tariffs for 90 days, meaning trade tensions could escalate again. Plus, tariffs on China continue to rise and if that’s not enough, stocks are not cheap yet.

Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoin spot trading volumes have declined as crypto prices entered into correction mode in the last two months, with crypto exchange Binance emerging as the preferred avenue for traders, according to a report from CryptoQuant.

Total bitcoin spot trading volume on crypto exchanges declined from a high of $44 billion on February 3 to $10 billion at the end of Q1, a nearly 77% drop, according to the analytics firm. Meanwhile, total altcoin spot trading volume on crypto exchanges declined from a high of $122 billion on February 3 to $23 billion at the end of Q1 — a more than 80% fall.

A volume drop of such magnitude suggests traders and investors are losing interest or confidence, possibly due to uncertainty or fear. Falling prices mean the value of bitcoin and other cryptos is going down, which can scare off more people, creating a cycle of less trading and lower prices, the report added.

Market’s loss is Binance’s gain

During the same time, Binance increased its dominance over the other crypto exchanges with its share of total market trading reaching almost 50%. Binance’s share of total daily bitcoin spot trading volume increased from 33% on February 3 to 49% by the end of Q1.

This implies that trading volumes on other exchanges declined much faster than on Binance, and that the exchange becomes the largest liquidity venue during times of higher market volatility.

Furthermore, Binance’s share of total daily altcoin spot trading volume increased from 38% on February 3 to 44% by the end of Q1.

Some altcoins still show relatively high spot trading volumes on Binance, in spite of the overall slowdown in trading volumes. For example, large altcoins like BNB, TON and EOS are still being traded with relatively high activity, at a time that overall crypto volumes have declined.

Meanwhile, bitcoin inflows to Binance have accelerated in the past week, CryptoQuant independent analyst Martuun wrote.

“The bitcoin reserve on Binance has increased from 568,768 BTC (Mar 28) to 590,874 BTC (Apr 9), an increase of 22,106 BTC,” he said in a snippet. “This shows a strong acceleration in BTC inflows to Binance. It’s likely that investors are actively moving funds to Binance, due the macro uncertainty and before the upcoming CPI announcement.”

U.S.-listed spot bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw outflows Wednesday even as the cryptocurrencies’ prices surged after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause in tariffs on most countries, excluding China.

The 11 bitcoin ETFs lost a net $127.2 million Wednesday, with investors withdrawing $89.7 million from BlackRock’s IBIT alone, according to data from Farside Investors. Wednesday marked the fifth consecutive day of outflows, with the funds losing a cumulative $722 million over the period.

Ether ETFs have also fallen out of investor favor and the nine funds saw a net outflow of $11.2 million Wednesday.

The dwindling demand can be attributed to the macroeconomic uncertainty caused by the U.S.-China trade tensions and volatility in the bond markets that likely led to macro investors selling every asset, including crypto ETFs, for cash.

Markets bounced back sharply later Wednesday after Trump announced a 90-day pause on tariffs for more than 75 nations that did not retaliate to his sweeping duties announced a week ago. However, China, which recently placed steeped retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, did not get any relief, as Trump hiked the total levy on Chinese goods to 125%.

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency by market value, rose over 8% to $83,500 and teh Ethereum blockchain’s native token, ether, jumped 13% to $1,770 alongside bigger gains in the altcoin market, CoinDesk data show. Meanwhile, Wall Street’s tech-heavy index, Nasdaq 100, jumped over 12%, its biggest single-day percentage gains in decades.

Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden has acquired Slingshot, a trading app that allows users to see their crypto balance across multiple protocols.

Slingshot allows users to trade tokens from a single universal USDC balance, removing hurdles like wallet setup, bridging assets across chains, and juggling gas fees, thus expanding Magic Eden well past Solana to every chain, including bitcoin.

“This acquisition is a major step forward in advancing the Magic Eden vision, which is to provide users worldwide with a seamless and safe way to buy and sell crypto and digital assets across all chains,” Jack Lu, CEO and Co-Founder of Magic Eden said in a blog post.

“Pairing Slingshot’s team of product visionaries with Magic Eden’s best-in-class marketing and scaling capabilities accelerates our ability to have an impact on the future of crypto.”

Magic Eden says the Slingshot acquisition will bolster its plans to offer more fiat-to-crypto onramps through platforms like Apple Pay and Venmo, and introduce AI-assisted tools for easier token discovery and trading.

Magic Eden itself generated $75 million in NFT marketplace revenue in 2024, according to a post on X by Lu. Lu said that incorporating Slingshot’s abstraction tech positions it to effectively compete against centralized crypto exchanges.

At the same time, this comes as the NFT market continues to contract. A report from DappRadar shows that in 2024, NFT trading volumes fell by 19% despite a broad market bull run. More recently, the NFT marketplace X2Y2 said its closing its virtual doors citing declining trading volume.

The news cycle has turned chaotic for crypto traders, courtesy of President Donald Trump’s back-and-forth tariffs announcement. In such situations, traders tend to ignore the noise and follow the tape – monitor the price chart, identify the path of least resistance and follow the same.

In case of bitcoin (BTC), the tape has turned bullish, with short-duration price charts flashing a pattern opposite of the one that characterized the January-February price peak above $109K.

We are talking about the double bottom pattern comprising two consecutive troughs with lows at about the same price, representing downtrend exhaustion, and a trendline drawn through the high point between the two troughs. A move above the trendline, also called the neckline, confirms a breakout and a bullish shift in the market trend.

BTC put in a double bottom at around $74,600 between April 7 and April 9, separated by a temporary recovery (high point) to nearly $80,800. On Wednesday, prices rose past that neckline level, confirming the double-bottom breakout.

Technical analysis theory suggests adding the gap between troughs and the neckline to the breakout point to gauge the potential upside move, which suggests scope for a BTC price rally to $87,000. As of writing, bitcoin changed hands at $82,000.

Supporting the bull case is the appearance of a “bullish outside day” candle on the daily chart, suggesting a trend reversal higher. The candle gets its name from its distinctive shape, featuring a green body and wicks that entirely engulf the negative price action of the preceding day. This pattern indicates a strong effort by buyers to reassert control, reflecting renewed bullish sentiment in the market.

These bullish signals risk invalidation in case of a renewed move below $75,000.

XRP, DOGE recovery may have legs

Payments-focused cryptocurrency XRP and the leading memecoin by market value, DOGE, surged by 14.3% and 12.7% on Wednesday, respectively, as a renewed uptick in BTC encouraged risk-taking across the broader crypto market.

Both cryptocurrencies formed bullish outside day candles, signaling the bulls’ efforts to regain market control after an extended sell-off. The pattern suggests potential for continued gains in the short-term.

Bitcoin (BTC) rose to nearly $82,000 early Thursday to usher gains across the crypto market after a U-turn on tariffs led to relief in broader equity markets on Wednesday, prompted by President Donald Trump changing course on a steep tariff levy globally.

XRP and ether (ETH) led gains among crypto majors with a 12% surge, while Cardano’s ADA, BNB Chain’s BNB, Solana’s SOL and dogecoin (DOGE) zoomed as much as 10%. Overall market capitalization rose 6%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) showed a 7% increase.

Crypto-tracked futures showed short liquidations of over $350 million, the highest since early March, which helped ease losses from Monday and Tuesday as bitcoin dove to nearly $75,000 at one point.

Such liquidation events often present a market buying opportunity, as CoinDesk noted on Monday, as they can signal an overstretched market that indicates a price correction has occurred, among other factors.

Elsewhere, Bittensor’s TAO, Sonic’s S and Flare’s FLARE were up as much as 30% to lead gains among midcaps, or tokens below a $5 billion market cap.

Thursday’s jump came as Trump paused higher tariffs on all countries, except China, where he increased the levy to 125%, amid mounting concerns from global leaders and recession fears. Countries that were hit with the higher, reciprocal duties that went into effect Wednesday will now be taxed at the earlier 10% baseline rate applied to other nations.

U.S. stocks staged their best rally since 2008. The S&P 500 Index soared 9.5%, rebounding from bear-market territory, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 surged 12%.

As such, traders continue to watch developments for cues on positioning amid the uncertainty.

“The market is rallying in response to anticipation that most trading partners will negotiate trade deals with the US, avoiding a full-fledged trade war,” Jeff Mei, COO at BTSE, told CoinDesk in a Telegram message. “That being said, continued tariffs against China and vice versa will lead to a realignment of global trade that could drastically change how the world operates. We remain cautious until we see the consequences of this play out over the coming months.”

Jupiter Zheng, partner at HashKey Capital, signalled a possibility of markets reaching a local bottom.

“The upswing was fueled by optimism that the worst may be behind us. While potential headwinds remain, such as retaliatory tariffs from China in response to Trump’s 125% increase, the start of negotiations with other countries offers some hope,” he said in an email.

“As US regulators continue to streamline regulatory hurdles and implement more favorable policies, it’s possible that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have reached a bottom, assuming no unexpected surprises emerge. The industry may not have fully priced in these developments, leaving room for potential growth,” Zheng added.